Book Zero
by Writing a story
Summary: Chiro had what any other kid could want; great family, nice friends, good grades, and a cute girl. But when he discovered the City's ancient heroes sleeping on the outskirts of the city, well things only went wrong from there. A different take on the history of Shugazoom and Chiro's back-story.
1. Chapter 1

Alrighty then, let's kick off my own theiroy as to a glimpe at Chiro's past.

If you have read my song meme, then you already know how it's going to end.

So if you havn't read it yet, **Don't!!**

It will make you sad and ruin one of the saddest parts of this whole story.

Oh well, let's kick this off!

Pass the champagne.  
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* * *

**

**Kicking Cans**

_Thump, thump, thump._ He could feel his heart beating in his ears. He knew they were just around the corner, waiting for him. He tired to slow his heart beat and breathing. He couldn't give himself away.

He was in a extremely large city. The building rotting, garbage in the street. He had to find them first if he wanted to survive. He heard a noise around the corner, confirming his fears. He clutched the gun he held close to his chest.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He quickly crouched to the ground and rolled across the floor. He held up his gun and shot. It was true to his aim and hit the larger, darker skinned boy right in the chest.

"Aww, come on Chiro! Do you have to hit me first every time?"

Chiro smiled, "Sorry buddy, but you're not exactly the most stealthy person around." Which was the nicest way Chiro could say that he was portly. But Glenny was right, he was always first to get out in laser tag.

He heard a slight shuffling behind him and turned just in time to hit B.T. in the chest too. He stopped dead in his tracks.

"Aww, dang it Glenny! You were suppose to distract him long enough for me to get him out!" The skinny red-head said.

"Sorry guys," Chiro said twirling his gun on his finger. "You know you can't beat me in a game of laser tag."

"You're right." A female voice said behind him. "But I can." He felt the gun barrel on his back as she and pulled the trigger and said "Bang."

"Game over." the computer announced. The Hologram of the city wavered and then disappeared, revealing the plain white room of the Holo-tag center.

"Winner: Jennet." It announced. Chiro turned around to look at his opponent.

She was a girl, the same height and age as him with light blue hair pulled back in a pony tail. Her gray eyes looked into his blue ones. She wore an outfit identical to the boys' except hers had a blue plaid skirt the same shade as Chiro's jeans. She winked and stuck her tongue out at him.

"You might be able to beat B.T. and Glenny, but you can't beat me." She said walking over to the computer terminal on the wall.

She typed a few words into the computer and presented it with a flip of her hand. The screen changed to all their past games. Sure enough the name on top of all the list was Jennet. Chiro was after hers, then B.T. and of coarse, Glenny.

"You see guys, you never even let me hit one of you guys." Glenny complained.

"Aww, Glenny we'll let you win the next game." Jennet said with a wink. She said that after every game, but one way or another he always got out first. A few times he had even gotten himself out.

"Fine Jennet," Chiro said as the excited the room, turning in their equipment the front desk. "You can have first place."

She smiled at him. It was a tradition of theirs to come after school on Thursdays and play a game of laser tag.

"But you have to pay for hover burger." Chiro finish as they walked out of the building. She looked at him, her mouth a gaped.

"Oh, no I don't." Jennet said smiling. She always paid for their burgers after the games, just like she paid for the private Holo-tag room. Her family was loaded. They were one of the richest and most important families in all of Shugazoom.

"I think it's a fair trade for us letting you win every time."

This was the same argument they had every week. They started to walk towards the hover burger stand.

"Alright, I'll pay up." She said throwing her hands in the air. "But you have to give me something in return."

Chiro looked at her skeptically. "What?"

She put one hand on her chin, and the other holding up her elbow. She had a very serious face on. She turned and smiled at Chiro.

"Tell you later." She said simply, and walked ahead of the boys. They all exchanged a what-was-that-about glance and jogged to keep up with her.

They split up after hover burgers. Glenny and B.T. lived in the same neighborhood, and Chiro and Jennet lived in the same apartment building. Chiro and Jennet waved goodbye while walking towards their side of town.

"You know," Chiro said. "One of these days, I'm gonna beat you in laser tag."

"Keep dreamin' super hero." Jennet said with a smile, calling Chiro her pet name for him. She had given it to him the day they became friends.

Chiro thought back to that day. Before Jennet, Glenny and B.T. had be the school bullies, and one day Chiro had stood up to them. They started to respect him after that and the all became great friends, and Jennet had started to call him super hero.

Jennet was looking at him funny.

"What are you looking at?" He asked.

She just kept on smiling.

"O.k that's getting creepy, could ya' stop?"

"Sorry you just look so stupid when you space out. I just had to take in the moment."

Chiro stuck his tongue out at her and ran ahead.

"Hey wait up!" She yelled running after him, laughing. "I was just joking."

He slowed down enough for her to catch up, but didn't stop. They raced all the way to their apartment building and ran in through the revolving doors, almost making one of their stingy neighbors fall on her face. The doorman caught her though.

"Ignorant little pigs." She whispered under her breath.

"Careful what you say madam, her father owns the building." The doorman said helping her up. "Besides they're only 13, they don't know any better."

"Humph." She said fixing her fur collar, and walking down the street.

Chiro and Jennet raced to the elevator, Chiro pushed the button and they both jumped in as the door opened.

"Ha ha! I win!" They both yelled in unison.

"You win?!" They continued "I don't think so."

They both collapsed on the floor from exhaustion and laughter.

Finally Chiro stood up and pushed the buttons for their floors. His was 10, hers 23.

He helped her up, while holding one hand to his stomach. He continued to chuckle, while Jennet giggled uncontrollably.

"Di-did you s-s-see Mrs. Humperdings' face?" Jennet asked trying not to fall into another fit of laughter.

"Priceless." Chiro said snickering.

They looked at each other a second, before finally breaking into another fit of laughter.

They finally calmed down just as the door opened on the tenth floor.

"Well this is my stop," Chiro said stepping out of the elevator. "See you tomorrow morning."

"No you won't I have violin lessons in the morning. You're walking to school by yourself. Don't forget to get up with out me there."

" Ha ha, see you at school then."

He started to leave the elevator, when he turned around again.

"What were you talking about when you said I had to give you something"

"Oh that," Jennet said. She smiled and leaned forward to give him a kiss on the lips.

"There all paid up." and she quickly closed the door.

Chiro stood there for a second in complete shock. Then he turned around and walked in to his apartment.

* * *

Now some of you may be asking

"Hey I thought you supported Chimay, what's this Scrap?"

Well hold on and remember, this is before Jinmay so Chiro is still fair game at this point. ;p

Just stay with me, we now return you to your regularly scheduled story.

* * *

He heard the sound of dishes clanging and clashing in the kitchen as he closed the door behind him.

"Chiro is that you?" A calming voice asked. A woman in her mid 30's came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on a towel.

She had long dirty blonde hair, put up in a tight bun. She looked so much older than she was with her hair up like that, but with her piercing blue eyes, not unlike her son's, she looked young and vibrant.

"Hey honey, how was school?" She asked walking back into the kitchen.

"Fine," Chiro said, setting his backpack on the coffee table and plopping down on the couch. "I made a B+ on a spelling test today."

His mother nodded her head in approval and set down a plate with a piece of cake on it and a glass of milk.

"That's great sweetie." She said kissing him on the forehead.

"Mom," Chiro said in annoyance, wiping his head with his sleeve. "I'm too old to be kissed by my mom." _I'd much rather be kissed by Jennet, I think. _He wasn't really sure what he thought about that kiss.

"You're never to old to be kissed by your mother." She said standing up again. "And don't eat all that at once, we're going to have dinner in a couple of hours and I don't want you to ruin your supper."

"What are we having tonight?" Chiro called back to her, he stood up and headed towards his room.

"Boiled greens and mutton." His mother answered, walking back into the kitchen.

Chiro made a discussed face and picked up the plate of Cake and darted towards his room. No way he was eating that.

After supper Chiro laid down in front of the TV and started to watch his favorite show, The Sun Riders. Luckily his mom had been called away at dinner by the phone and he had been able to dump most of the greens down the drain.

"Have you finished your homework yet?" His mother asked sitting down on the couch.

"Yes, mom." He lied, and she could tell.

"Go do it now." She said turning off the TV.

"Mom!" Chiro yelled. "That's my favorite show, can't I do it afterwards?" He whined with his biggest puppy dog eyes.

She smirked at him, no way that was working.

"I don't see why it matters, you've seen all the episodes 3 times already. I think you can skip tonight and do homework instead."

He sighed defeated and started towards his room.

"Fine, but I won't forgive you for this." Chiro said "How am I going to train to be a super hero if I can't watch them in action?" He jumped around on the couch trying to look cool and striking a pose, just like Johnny Sunspot.

"Oh how will you?" His mother asked rolling her eyes. "Maybe you could become a police officer of a fireman, just like you dad was." as soon as it was out of her mouth she wished she could take it back.

At the mention of his dad, Chiro stopped and looked down. Everyone considered him a hero. He had given up his own life to save a little girl from a burning building. And not just any little girl, but the little girl of the most powerful man on Shugazoom, as know as Jennet.

That was the reason Jennet and Chiro were living in the same apartment building, and the reason they got away with so much. Jennet's daddy owned most of the 'sketchier' businesses in the city. It was as why Jennet was such a bully before she became friends with Chiro, it ran in the family. If not for the accident they might have never become friends.

He sighed and walked to his room. He hated thinking about his dad.

"Yeah, maybe. Well I'm going to bed, 'night." Chiro headed towards his room, sadly.

"Honey?" his mom called.

"Yeah?"

"Love you, good night."

"Love you too Mom." Chiro closed his door behind him and laid down in his bed. He closed his eyes and immediately started to dream.

* * *

_There is confusion and yelling. Pain and fear everywhere. Every one is in chains, no one is free. There is a figure, tall and devilous on a dark throne. Chiro stands in front of him, scaried but oddly not. He feels calm and strong. His laugh chills Chiro's spine as he saids;_

"_Foolish human, did you really think you could beat me? The ruler of evil?" He says hissing, like a snake. Or a dragon.  
_

"_I have a power you could never dream of having!" Chiro snaps back._

"_Oh?" The figure asks, "And what would that be?"

* * *

_

Chiro woke up the next with the sun in his eyes. He stretched his arms and looked around. _What a weird dream. _He thought to himself. He crawled out of bed and opened his bedroom door.

No usual smell of bacon cooking in the air, no faint singing coming from the kitchen. Weird.

He walked in the room with the stove and saw the note on the fridge.

_Chiro, I had to go into work early. I'll also be late getting home tonight, I made you extra greens for lunch and dinner. I want them__**ALL**__ gone when I get home. Love you, Mom._

Chiro opened up the fridge and saw the container of greens and dumped them down the sink while reading the note. But it explained why he hadn't woken up yet that morning, his mom wasn't there to pull him out of bed. He probably slept right through his alarm-.

He stopped and turned slowly towards the stove. His eyes fell upon the tiny digital clock there.

"7:50!!!" he screamed. He had less than 30 minutes to get to school! He ran to his room and quickly put on his school uniform and ran his fingers through his hair.

"No breakfast today." He said grabbing his backpack and running out the door. He thought about taking the elevator, but changed his mind, it would take to long. He ran to the circular stairs and jumped on the rail. He slid down the 10 stories, almost knocking over several people.

"Sorry!" he called up as he slid down the rail. He got the bottom and darted for the revolving door. He jumped through it and almost knocked over the same old woman from yesterday. She was caught by the doorman once more and she glared at him evilly.

"Sorry!" He yelled again before running down the street at a full sprint. He glanced down at his watch, 8:05 it read.

"Crap!" He yelled as he stared at the watch face. He didn't even notice he was running out in front of on-coming traffic.

A car blew it's horn, seconds away from Chiro's body. He looked up at the last second and had no time to react.

In that second he thought about his Mom, Glenny and B.T., his father, the one he barely remembered and how he never got to live up to his Dad's reputation. But mostly he thought of Jennet, and his first kiss.

He closed his eyes and waited for the impact.

* * *

Super Cliff Hanger!!!

If you guys want me to continue I will,

but if I don't get enough feed back, well I guess we'll leave Chiro to his doom.

MWAHAHAHAHAHAH!

But seriously I want feed back on this thing.

And yes for once Chiro has parents, and friends

not the little outcast you all think he is in this one.

I love going against the grain.

Well tootles for now!


	2. Chapter 2

Yay! FINALLY a new chapter, hope you like it!  
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* * *

Ch. 2**

Chiro closed his eyes and waited for the impact. A pink blur flew in front of the car and grabbed Chiro seconds before he was ran over by the car. The car came to a screeching stop just feet ahead of where he should have been laying dead in the road.

Carefully the odd pink robotic creature gently set Chiro down on the sidewalk just as a man stepped out of the car.

"Geez Kid!" The man in the car said. "Are you o.k?"

"Yeah, Mister I'm fine." Chiro said as he dusted himself off. He looked up at the odd pink creature that had saved him. It was a robotic monkey.

Sparx of the Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force had just saved gave Chiro a big thumbs up and flew off.

"That was a close one." The man said as the actually red simian flew away. "Sure am glad the Hyper Force is back to help us."

"Uh, yeah." Chiro said as he looked down at his watch and gasped. He only had a few minutes to get to school and he was still blocks away.

"Oh man the principal is gonna kill me if I'm late again." He said as he ran off towards school again.

The man who had almost hit him scratched his head and then got back in his car and drove away.

Chiro turned down an alley to take a short cut, and for another reason. It provided great cover.

Chiro slowed down to a jog and then a fast walk and looked around for his red friend. Sparx dropped down from one of the surrounding buildings.

"Dang Kid, are you trying to get killed?" Sparx asked as he crossed his arms and looked at Chiro.

"Sorry," Chiro said "I'm late to school and wasn't paying attention."

"Well, next time be more careful. What would you have done if I just so happened to not be patrolling this area? Do you know what Antauri and Nova would do to me if they found out you had been killed on my watch? Guess who would be the next casualty." Sparx pointed to himself and make slicing motion in front his neck.

"All right Sparx, I be careful from now on. I'm going to be late to school, bye!" Chiro yelled as he ran down the alleyway. "Oh and I have something I want to talk to you about after school!" He called back.

"All right, see ya at the S.R. later for training!" Sparx called after as he turned the corner. Sparx smiled to himself, he was beginning to like that kid.

_Only one more block to go! _Chiro though as he rounded one last corner. He could see the school up ahead, and-

**Ding Dong** the warning bell rang, Chiro had exactly one minute to get his butt in his seat. He stepped his speed up a notch and kicked it into high gear.

The Principal opened the door to let any stragglers into the school and Chiro zipped by him.

"Pushing it today Mr. Cipes." The Principal said as Chiro ran down the hallway to his class.

"But I'm not late yet!" Chiro yelled back as he ran into his class and right into his teacher.

Papers flew around in a flurry as the final bell rang.

"Sorry Mr. Gideon," Chiro said as he helped him to his feet and leaned over to pickup the papers.

"Chiro…" He said while fixing his tie, "What is you excuse this time?"

"Slept in. Mom wasn't there to wake me up today. Sorry?" Chiro smiled his award winning grin.

Mr. Gideon sighed and waved his hand. "At least you were in here _as_ the final bell rang. Go to your seat."

Chiro moved to his seat and smiled. He had made it, barely, but he had made it. He passed Jennet as he went to his seat and she smiled at him. He felt his face grow red as he rushed to his seat.

He sighed as he got his notebook out of his bag when a piece of paper landed on his desk. He looked up and saw Jennet's blue ponytail swing back and forth in her burgundy ribbon. Mr. Gideon had already began the lesson, so he didn't see her pass the note back.

Chiro opened the note and read:

_Hey Super hero, where were you this morning? I kinda wanted to talk to you._

Chiro glanced up to make sure Mr. Gideon wasn't looking before he wrote his answer:

_I had a feeling you did. I didn't wake up this morning I almost got hit by a car, but one of the Hyper Force saved me._

He threw the note back to Jennet and watched her eyes go wide as she read the note. She turned around in her seat and mouthed _Really?_

Chiro nodded and shrugged as if to say he was fine. Mr. G walked by and slapped a ruler on Jennet's desk before he continued his lecture. She snapped around and they both began to work.

She looked back once before mouthing one word; _Lunch_.

Chiro nodded and began to work just as Glenny and B.T. leaned over and spoke to him.

"Hey Chiro, where were you? Jennet was trying to find you this morning." B.T. whispered.

"I know," Chiro replied in a hushed voice. "I slept in."

"Did it have to do with what Jennet was going to tell you later?" Glenny asked.

Chiro turned a bright red before mumbling that he didn't know.

Glenny and B.T. looked at each other before smiling back at Chiro.

"Chiro is there something you're not telling us?" B.T. asked as he leaned forward.

"Yeah, like something involving you and Jennet?" Glenny chimed in.

"No." Chiro answered as his face grew redder.

"Aw come on Chiro," B.T. said as he and Glenny leaned closer, "you can tell us."

"We are your best friends after all." Glenny said. They were both leaning their desks forward as far as they would go. Suddenly, Glenny's desk gave way his larger weight and he fell forward. The sound surprised B.T. made his fall forward too and they both laid sprawled out on the floor.

"Boys." Mr. Gideon said in a menacing voice behind them. "What kind of monkey business are you three up to now?"

"Hey I wasn't doing anything!" Chiro said throwing his hands up in protest. Mr. Gideon turned his attention to B.T. and Glenny. They tried to stutter an answer but before they could finish Mr. Gideon held his hand up.

"I don't care what you two were doing, you have to serve detention after school now for disrupting my class."

"What?!" they said in unison. "Aww, come on Mr. G you can't be serious!"

"I am." He said looking over the rim of his glasses. "You two. Here. After school. Now pick up your desks and get back to work," He started to walk away and turned around one last time. "And one more word out of your…" He pointed to Chiro, "Or your mouth…" He turned around to Jennet. "And you will be joining them in detention, understood?" They both nodded vigorously.

"Good." Their teacher said. "Let's get back to work. Now we all know the history of our city. Hundreds of years ago there was a giant robot that protected the city. But after it defeated Him, it disappeared. It was thought that the robot left the planet to insure peace. This was recently disproved."

The class nodded and everyone started talking, it was big deal that the Hyper Force was back. They had been go for a long time, and no one knew why they had reappeared. Well, no one but Chiro. He knew a lot more about the Hyper Force than any one could guess.

Mr. Gideon cleared his throat and the class quieted down. He walked back to his desk and turned around.

"Now I know some of you have questions," He was referring to how some of the parents were concerned as to why the Hyper Force would suddenly appear, their reappearance could only mean one thing,He was back.

"I want to let you all know that the school has a very good plan in case something were to happen…" Chiro stopped listening, he knew why the Hyper Force was back. He had woken them up after all. He thought back to the day that everything had happened, it was a couple of weeks ago...

* * *

Chiro had woken up that morning in a rush, he was saw that it was 8:00 and he though he was going to be late for school.

Then he remembered that it was Saturday.

He stopped and looked down at his clothes. He was already in his school uniform and he didn't feel like changing so he just walked into the kitchen and fixed breakfast.

His mother wasn't there, and so he watched Saturday morning cartoons and ate a bowl of Super Sugar Rush Snaps. He thought about what he was going to do that day, he knew Jennet was out with her parents, and B.T. and Glenny were grounded after that incident involving the water balloons at school.

Chiro sighed and decided he would just go and wander around the city. He grabbed his backpack and headed out the door and into the day that would change his life forever.

He walked around aimlessly for hours, just trying to find something to do. He went to the arcade for a little bit but that got boring quickly, so he just started to walk down streets at random and eventually he ended up on the outskirts of the city.

No one had lived in this part of the city for years. All the buildings were made of wood, potently fire hazards, not like all the fancy metal buildings in new parts of the city. It felt eerily familiar for some reason. It kinda reminded him of the laser tag course Jennet always picked, so maybe that was it. He quickly turned down a tight alley. He didn't know what compelled him to do this, but he just did.

He had to take off his backpack just to squeeze through it. Suddenly the ground started to shake. The building around him started to groan and collapse. In a fit of panic he ran towards the other end of the alley and escaped just as it was buried under a pile of rubble. He turned around and his breath caught in his throat. The alley apparently ended up in some kind of forest.

He started to panic, he had no idea where he was and there was no one around for miles. He had always heard about the ghosts that haunted the outskirts. He felt his breath quicken and his palms start to sweat. He heard a noise behind him and he sprinted in a random direction.

Finally he made himself stop. Getting freaked out wasn't going to help his situation and once he calmed down he realized how peaceful it was. The sun shined gently through the multi-colored leaves, warming his face and making tiny rainbows appear on his hands.

He couldn't help but smile, it was all so comforting. He was definitely glad he had found this hidden paradise. He walked with his eyes closed, feeling the sun on his face and the wind in his hair.

He was lost in his own thoughts so when his foot hit a foreign object, he went sprawling to the ground.

"Ow…" He said as he slowly stood up, he looked down at the perpetrator.

It was a can, just a simple little soda can. He sighed as he brushed himself off.

Of course he would not only find something so out of place in this secret garden, but he would trip over it too.

He pushed his hands down into his pockets and looked at the can.

He gently kicked it. Then he kicked it again. And again.

**Clank! Clank! Clank! **The sound echoed through the whole forest, Chiro started smiling again and kicked the can harder.

**Clank! **It bounced off a tree and he kicked it while jumping in midair.

**Clank!** It flew really far that time. He ran and kicked it as hard as he could, laughing like a loon because out here, Who could hear him?

**CLONG!!!** That time there was a loud echoing sound that reverberated in every direction. Chiro looked up to what it had hit and froze in place.

Stand in front of him was a giant robot. His jaw dropped, was this the robot from the old legend? He had heard the old stories about it, they were the bedtime stories of the children of Shugazoom, they had even learned about it in history.

Shugazoom was protected from evil forces by a large metal robot made by one of the planet's residents. Some of the stories also featured a team of small robotic creatures that controlled it, but that was just the ramblings of old men. Right?

But all the stories ended the same way, with the robot leaving Shugazoom. So what was it doing here? A little mossy, but still recognizable none the less.

He slowly walked towards it. He could barely believe this was here. He quickened his pace and placed his hand on the side of the robot's foot.

"Unbelievable." He said as he felt the cold metal under his hand. Suddenly it shifted under his hand and opened a large door leading into the robot. Chiro gasped, he should go tell someone. No one knew he was out here and if he got trapped in this thing, they would never find him.

He walked into the doorway anyway, this was just to good of an opportunity the pass up!

* * *

He was vaguely aware that someone was calling his name. Finally he snapped out of his trance.

Jennet was standing in front of him with her hands on her hips.

"Chiro are you listing to me?" She asked him looking at him. The room was empty, where had everyone gone?

"Uh, no sorry what was the question?" He looked up at the clock, it was noon! He had been zoned out over 3 hours.

"Whoa, it that what time it is?" He asked as he stood up. "Sorry Jennet, I didn't mean to space out there."

He pushed his chair in and looked at her apologetically.

She smiled at him, "It's o.k." She said as she leaned up and kissed his lips again.

"You look so cute when you zone out." she winked, grabbed his hand, and pulled him out of the room to lunch. Chiro could get use to this.

* * *

So it took awhile to get this chapter out but I have a good reason!

You see I've had this on my computer for weeks, just sitting here. And I'm so glad I didn't post it as it was.

Original I had Chiro jumping over the car in a super hero pose, skipping school and then walking around until he found the robot.

But that was sooOOOOoooooo over used that I couldn't handle it. So I made this.

Keep in mind there' s a lot of back and forth in this so I hope that I got what's memories and what's present clear. If you don't understand it tell me, I'll try to make it clearer!

Well you now the drill, leave comments and all that jazz.

If you haven't checked out my other book Gidget yet you should I hear it's good. At least that's what these people say.

I'll get another one of these out eventually.


	3. Chapter 3

New Chapter!!!

I would have had this up earlier, but the site wouldn't let me upload anything.

Yep, that's the excuse I'm going with!

* * *

Ch. 3

As Chiro and Jennet sat down at the table Glenny and B.T. were reading their textbooks. Hold on! Chiro had to take a double take on that one.

"Are you guys actually studying?!" Chiro asked shocked.

"We have that test over the monkey team tomorrow." Glenny said as he rubbed his head. "I don't see why we have to know all this stuff about them."

"Maybe because they save your butt every day by protecting the city?" Jennet asked sarcastically.

"Well it's really hard to remember all their names and what they look like." B.T. complained as he slammed his book shut and sighed.

"It's not that hard," Chiro said, "there is only five of them."

"Well do you know all of-" B.T. asked before Chiro interrupted.

"Antauri, Gibson, Otto, Sparx and Nova." Chiro spouted out.

"Well do you know which one is which color?" B.T. snapped.

"Black, blue, green, red, yellow. In that order." Chiro replied as he took a bite of his lunch. B.T. grumbled as Jennet asked:

"I thought the pink one was a girl?"

"He's red, not pink." Chiro explained nonchalance. "And he hates it when you call him pink."

"Chiro how do know all this stuff?" Glenny asked, "It's like you know them personally or something."

Chiro almost spit out his food, but managed to laugh.

"What makes you say that?" he asked nervously, "I just love history, and the 'pink' one saved me this morning. That's all." Jennet gave him an odd look but said nothing.

"Well I don't care how he knows them," B.T. announced, "as long as I can copy off of him during the test."

"No way!" Chiro protested, "I'm not going to get in trouble because you won't study for a test!"

They continued to argue as Jennet tried to figure out what Chiro was hiding.

The rest of the day went by extremely uneventful.

"I can't believe we have detention." Glenny complained a couple of minutes before the last bell rang.

"You should have stayed out of other peoples business." Jennet said to him while finishing up her work.

"If someone would tell us what's going on we wouldn't have to go to detention." B.T. said with a glance at Chiro.

"Nothing's going on." Chiro said indifferently. He tried his best to keep his glaze from wandering to Jennet.

"Why can't you guys tell us what you two are up to?" Glenny asked as the bell rang.

"Well look at the time!" Chiro exclaimed while looking at his watch. "I have to get home immediately!" He sprinted towards the door with Jennet close in tow.

"Hey guys!" B.T. yelled as he and Glenny tried to run after them, but Mr. Gideon grabbed the back of the shirts and pulled them back in the room.

"Where do you two think you are going?" He asked as he made them sit back down, "We have a lot of work to do." Glenny and B.T. groaned and smacked their heads against the table.

* * *

Chiro and Jennet only slowed down as they got outside.

"That was a close one." Chiro said as he whipped sweat out of his eyes.

"Are you embarrassed about us going out?" Jennet asked.

"No!" Chiro answered quickly, "It's just I don't want B.T. and Glenny to feel left out."

"Oh," Jennet said simply, "that's why. Okay, I was just wondering." They heard a car horn honk and Jennet turned around to see a limo waiting for her.

She sighed, "Do they have to send that to pick me up?" She asked. She turned back to Chiro, "You want a ride home?"

"Um, I have to run some errands for my Mom," Chiro said hastily.

"We can drop you off at the store." Jennet said, "Come on, let's go." Chiro didn't want to explain where he had to go, how was he suppose to tell her he had to go train with monkeys?

"Um it fine, I like to wall." he said as he turned away from her, "Well I'll see you tomorrow, bye!"

He made a run for it as she started to go after him. She turned around angrily and she promised herself she would find out what he was hiding.

Chiro always took a different route every time he went to see the monkeys. You didn't want anyone to notice a strange new boy walking by every other day. It didn't matter anyways, he could always find the Super Robot without even trying, it was like some force pulled him to it.

Today he was wandering around the older part of the city. No one lived here so he didn't have to hide where he went, it was too dangerous to live here, all the buildings were old, and chancy.

Abruptly Chiro looked up and gasped. The structure that stood in front of him made him catch his breath.

It was obviously old and run down, but Chiro recognized it. It was the same building that his father had died in. It was no more that a skeletal structure of the warehouse it once was, the fire had destroyed most of it's walls and floors.

He hated the side of it. It was this building that had trapped his father that night and, and…

_A young Chiro is seen playing with some of his favorite toys, he can't be more than 7 yrs old. His mother is in the kitchen, cooking supper like normal. His father, the man he gets his dark hair from, is sitting at the table reading a newspaper. _

_The phone rings, it's for him. A fire has broken out in some of the old warehouses on the outer city. He asks why it matters, they should just let it burn out. They tell him it's because there are some kids trapped in one of the buildings and they need all the help they can get. He says he will be right there. _

_Chiro has stood up by now and is grabbing onto his mother's leg. She is rubbing her hands nervously on her apron. He tells them what's going on and that he has to go._

_She tells him to be careful, he says he always is. He gives her a good bye kiss and rubs Chiro on the head, messing up his hair. He smiles and says good bye as he runs out the door putting his coat on. _

_That is the last time either of them see him again._

Chiro stared at the building with an unimaginable hate. His father had gotten down this building before anyone else and ran inside to save a little girl. He got to her and was able to throw her out a window to safety before the flames engulfed him.

They had never figured out why she was in that building. Some thought it was a kidnapping gone wrong. They found several other bodies in the same building. A cause of death was never determined. The kidnapping theory held water, after all the little girl was one of the biggest mob bosses in Shugazoom's daughter. And she went to school with the fireman's son.

Chiro looked up and saw he was almost to the forest where the Super Robot was sleeping. Chiro walked through the now familiar path and made his way to the robot.

The sight of the gigantic metal man still made him catch his breath every time he saw it. As he walked in to the foot he thought once again of the first time he had walked through those doors.

* * *

He was completely entranced with the amazing structure. Emergency lights lined the bottom of the wall, and it was with these that he saw his way. He had been exploring the robot for the last few minutes. He was taking extra care to remember which way he was going so he wouldn't get lost. He continued to walk down the hallway in awe until he saw the back wall. This had 6 odd, colored tubes lining it.

They all were dark and had a certain sense of foreboding about them that just screamed bad news for Chiro. He decided to stay far away from them if he could. As he was backing away from the tubes he noticed he was walking into another room.

He turned around and saw that he was in an odd room with a rather unnecessarily large switch on to floor. He looked at it and slowly walked over to the other side of it.

"It must be to the power." He said out loud. He covered his mouth when he noticed how dead his voice sounded in the hollow room.

"Maybe I should turn on the lights so this place doesn't seem so creepy."

Carefully he grabbed the handle of the switch and felt a weird pulsing power flow through him. He almost didn't flip.

"Aw, quit being a baby and just flip the switch." He growled to no one again and he pulled the lever down.

Power shot up his arm, his muscles locked up and he couldn't even scream. He wasn't sure if he wanted to scream. It hurt, it calmed him, it burned while sweeping over him like a cool blanket. He felt weak and ready to burst at the seams at the same time.

His hand clamped around the lever until his knuckles turned white, then red. Finally he released his death grip on the handle and crumpled into a ball on the floor.

It was odd, he could have sworn he had heard metal scraping together as he passed out.

* * *

_Black out_

"mhmh mmmhmhrh mrh mehhm." There was an odd buzzing sound in Chiro's ear.

"mrhr rhem heren mhanet." Voices, defiantly voices, but what were they saying?

Chiro could hear the voices before he could see their owners. There were just gray shapes moving just beyond his eyelids. He tried to move but his muscles wouldn't budge. They felt as heavy as rocks.

"-hat are we going to do about him?" a voice said as his hearing began to sharpen.

"Well I don't know." another said, it sounded slightly odd, like its owner had a weird accent.

"How did a human even get in here?" a feminine voice said.

"We should interrogate him." the first voice said, this one was smooth and calming.

"Or we could keep him as a pet." yet another voice said. Soon after this suggestion there was a quick slapping sound.

"Sparx shut up." the feminine voice said.

"Geez Nova, did you have to hit me so hard?" The voice who was identified as Sparx asked the female Nova.

"Yes," she replied, "it's the only way to smack all the stupid out of you."

"I wonder if he has food." A brand new voice said, this one deep and slightly gruff.

"Otto," The one with the weird accent said. "How will that help us in our current situations?"

"Well I'm hungry." Otto said. "That is one of our current situations. It feels like I haven't eaten in years, Gibson."

"Otto," The one addressed as Gibson said slightly annoyed, "I don't care about the current state of your never ending appetite. We have more important things to worry about than-"

"Geez Brain Strain," Sparx said, "We haven't even been up for 30 minutes and all ready you have started in on poor Otto. Besides you know that it always feels like it's been years between meals for Otto."

"Hey Antauri have you noticed his clothes?" The female Nova said.

Chiro could feel a presence leaning somewhere over him, but he still couldn't open his eyes.

"Yes Nova?" The only one left who could be Antauri answered.

"They are completely different from what the humans I remember wearing."

_The __humans__? What are these things?_

Finally Chiro forced his eyes open and the light blinded him for a second. Slowly he regained his vision to see… five monkeys standing in front of him.

_No way. _He thought to himself. There was a yellow monkey with pink eyes leaning over him, a black one with green eyes looking over her shoulder. A pinkish one(Chiro assumed it was the girl) had it's arm casually thrown over the shoulders of a green one, both talking to a blue one. The trio all had black eyes. All of them were too focused on their discussions and investigations to notice that Chiro was awake.

He sat there in silent shock until the yellow glanced over his face and saw he was awake.

It let out a high pitch yelp (oops, that one must be the girl) and fell backward in surprise. Everyone else looked over at where she was and rushed to her side.

The pink one saw that Chiro was awake and immediately assumed he had hurt her some how.

"What did you do to Nova?" he asked angrily as he turned his fists into giant magnets. Chiro just now noticed they were half robotic monkeys.

That was too much, his muscles finally reacted and he jumped up, let out a scream, and scooted as quickly as he could to the nearest wall.

"I didn't do any thing! What are you guys?" Chiro asked as he tried to push himself through the wall.

"Sparx!" The black one with the calm voice said. "Nova's fine stop, you're scaring him."

Sparx reluctantly complied and changed his hands back to normal, but he kept a wary eye on Chiro.

Chiro stood there in trying to figure out a way he could get out of this mess when the black one spoke to him again.

"Hello," He said slowly. He walked towards Chiro cautiously with is hands outstretched. "It's o.k. we won't hurt you, we're heroes. We help people."

"Antauri," The blue one with the weird accent said, "Why are you even trying to talk to him? No human has ever understood us and none ever will."

"But he answered Sparx's question, and he asked us one." The green one said. He bounced past Antauri and went right up to Chiro and stood toe-to-toe with him.

"Hi!" He said tilting his head back so he could look straight up at Chiro. "I'm Otto, what's your name little guy?"

Chiro suddenly relaxed a little and smiled uneasily at the odd creature at his feet.

"I don't think I'm the 'little guy' around here." He answered to the creature that only came up just past his waist. "I'm Chiro, by the way."

Otto laughed and looked at him. "That's a funny name, but you're a funny looking human so I guess it all works out."

"Did he just answer Otto?" Gibson asked in disbelief. "No human has ever understood us before." he stroked his chin and walked over to Chiro.

"Would you protest if I ran a few test on you?" He asked examining Chiro.

"Uh, yeah?" Chiro couldn't believe this was happening, it had to be a dream.

"Gibson," the yellow female said forcibly, "You're scaring him, stop. The poor guy doesn't even know us."

"Well then let's not hold off on any more introductions." The black one said calmly. "I'm Antauri."

"Nova," the girl said sweetly as she laid a hand on her chest.

"SPRX-77," The pink one said, "But you can call me Sparx." He walked over to Chiro, untransformed his hand, and stuck out it out. Chiro took it uneasily and shook it.

"Sorry about the whole 'trying to kill you think'." Sparx mumbled as he shook his hand. Nova smacked him upside the head with her tail and he yelped.

He rubbed his head with his free hand sighed.

"Geez Nova, twice in five minutes?" He turned back to Chiro, "But I really am sorry about that, Kid."

"It's o.k. I guess." Chiro replied.

"I'm," The blue one said with a dramatic flourish," Mr. Hal Gibson," Chiro started to snicker.

"Mr. Hal?" He asked trying to hold back a grin.

Mr. Hal glared at him, "It's Gibson. Not 'Mr.' nor 'Hal' just Gibson."

"Okay, okay calm down, Gibson." Chiro said.

"And you already met Otto." Antauri said gesturing towards the green monkey.

"Do you have any food?" Otto asked happily.

"Um, no?" he answered, Otto looked extremely dejected at this and sighed.

"Sorry." Chiro said.

"It's okay." He replied sadly.

"But it's nice to meet you all." Chiro said trying to cheer him up, "So what are you things?"

"Cybertronic Monkeys." Gibson answered. Chiro sighed.

"Of coarse you are."

_So much for 'just the ramblings of old men'. _Chiro thought to himself.

* * *

My oh my I love to poke fun at Sparx's color!

He met the team! Yay!

Oh well he'll get over it.

Well here we have one of those new flanged chapters I've been promising you guys.

When will the next one come out? Who knows? When ever I feel like I guess.

But, comment help me work faster, so that could help me get motivated.

If you guys don't start leaving comments I'm going to start ending all my chapters with really big cliffhangers then not update for a month.

Mwhahahahahah!!!! Just kidding,

Or Am I?


	4. Chapter 4

I'm back and here's a new chapter. Yay!

* * *

Ch. 4

The monkeys and Chiro stood in an awkward silence for a few moments.

"Well," the coal black one finally said, "Why don't we give you a tour?" The rest of the monkeys looked at each other with puzzled looks on their faces.

"Um, okay." Chiro said cautiously, what else was he suppose to say?

"Wonderful, let's start here. This is the Command Center." Antauri said as Chiro looked around the room they were in.

It had the six colored tubes on one side, a giant computer terminal on the other and six colored bubble seats in the middle. The Robot didn't look so creepy now that the lights were on.

"Antauri there are more pressing matter to attend to that a tour." Gibson said annoyed, "Like, how he go in here, how he managed to wake us up and how long we have been asleep."

"Very well," Antauri said to Gibson, he then turned to Chiro and asked: "Chiro how did you get in here?"

"Um, the door in the foot." Chiro answered uneasily, he still thought that he was going crazy. Maybe he was laying in the middle of the woods somewhere still.

"How did you wake us up?" Antauri then asked him.

"To tell you the truth I was just looking for a light switch." Chiro said blushing.

Antauri nodded with approval and turned back to Gibson.

"There you go, two of your three questions answered. May we go on the tour now?" Antauri grinned slightly at Gibson who responded with some kind of mumble. The monkeys looked worriedly at each other again. What the heck was Antauri thinking?

"Wonderful," Antauri said again, "let's get started then."

"Well I would love to," Chiro said "But I really need to head home. My Mom is probably freaking out right now because I'm not home yet."

"Oh, alright then," Antauri said simply, "Do you believe you could come back tomorrow?"

"Um, yeah. I could probably make it back." Chiro answered unsure. Now the monkeys were really starting to freak out. "But why do you want me? Wouldn't it be better for someone with more power like the mayor or something to come here?"

"Oh no." Antauri answered, "We need you to come back. Until we know more about how the people of Shugazoom would react to us, we can't just roam about the city."

"Um, okay," Chiro said, he guessed that made sense. Look how he had reacted when he heard the talking monkeys. "I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow then. Bye." He started to leave and then stopped.

"How do I get out of here?" He asked suddenly.

"You could use the orange tube." Antauri said simply. Chiro walked over to the tube and stood in it.

"How do I make it-" The tube sucked Chiro down before he finished his question.

"What the heck are you doing Antauri?" Sparx basically yelled the second Chiro disappeared down the tube.

"I normally don't agree with Sparx," Nova said, "but what are you thinking?"

"That boy is special." Antauri said simply while turning around towards the computer terminal.

"What do you mean?" Otto asked, "Is it because he talked to us?"

"That," Antauri answered, "And the fact that he has a tremendous amount of the Power Primate in him."

Everyone gasped and froze where they stood.

"What do you mean?" Nova asked quietly. "Do you think that he could be…" She couldn't even finish the sentence.

"Yes, I do believe he is the Chosen One." Antauri finished for her.

"But he's too young." Gibson protested. "He can't be older than 15."

"Why didn't you say so earlier?" Sparx asked.

"Because, I don't think it's time to tell him yet." Antauri answered.

"Well how the heck are we suppose to know when to tell him?" Sparx asked

"We study him."

"Study him?" Otto echoed.

"Who is going to study him?" Nova asked suspiciously.

"Well, Otto has to make repairs to the robot, Gibson is going to try and calculate the amount of time we have been out of commission, and I'm going to try and contact the Vernon mystics and ask them what they think of this whole thing. So I believe that leaves you and Sparx."

"What?!" Nova asked angrily, "You don't honestly believe that we can-"

"I suggest you follow him now, before he gets to far away and you lose him. And remember, stealth."

Nova grumbled and stomped out of the room. Sparx quickly turned to follow her, yelling after her as they left.

"Well that will end well." Gibson said before he turned to his computer.

* * *

Chiro walked out of the robot and noticed that the sun had almost sunk past the horizon. The sky was burning with reds, pinks, purples and blues.

"Aw crap!" Chiro yelled as he ran through the forest again. "Mom's gonna kill me!" He darted towards the alleyway he originally came down. It was still blocked by debris.

"Great." He mumbled to himself and immediately started to look for another exit. He spotted one and ran down it instead. While he ran he pondered the day's past events.

Chiro couldn't believe that this whole thing was happening. It was like an episode of the Sun Riders. Could this really be happening? Could he really have just awaken the city's ancient protectors? _Maybe they'll make me an honorary member or something for waking them up. That would be so cool_. As he thought about this two robotic monkeys watched him from roof tops.

"How did I get stuck doing this job with you again?" Nova asked Sparx angrily. He should have kept his mouth shut, but of coarse he didn't.

"Because fate has destined us to be together?" He asked while making kissy faces at Nova. She let one quick punch answer that question for her.

"Come on, we got a 'Chosen One' to follow." She said as she used her jet pack to jumped on to a different roof.

"Why are you mad at me already?" Sparx asked as he came down next to her. "What have I done?"

"You are just a infuriating person." Nova said simply.

"Which is your way of saying nothing." Sparx commented. Nova glared at him but quickly turned her attention back to the matter at hand.

"Come on Sparx, we need to follow Chiro and make sure he gets home safely." Sparx sighed but followed. All their life he had been trying to get Nova's attention, and all it ever got him was a fat lip.

"Hey Nova?" Sparx asked sincerely. She turned to him and raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

Sparx thought about telling her right then and there how he felt but stopped himself.

"Do you think that when Antauri said he was going to contact the Vernon Mystics, what he really meant was that he was going to see if _He_ had reawaken?"

Nova stared down at the young boy racing home.

"I don't know Sparx," she answered with a hint of worry in her voice, "but I have a bad feeling that it does."

* * *

Chiro ran into his apartment and closed the door quietly behind him. It was already completely dark outside by the time he had made it home and if he lucky-

"Chiro Cipes!" his mother's voice rang through out the living room. "Where on Shugazoom have you been?"

She was standing there angrily, with her hands on her hips. She was still in her work clothes, but her hair was down. Her dark blond hair fell around her face. It should have made her look beautiful, but with her angry eyes, she looked mad and a tad bit terrifying. Her own steel blue eyes cut into his and almost made him spill the truth about the monkeys and robot. He caught himself just in time though.

"Just playing at the arcade with Glenny and B.T." He lied.

"Why didn't you call me and tell me where you were?" She asked angrily.

"I forgot. Sorry." Chiro said as he tried his best to back his way into his room. If he was lucky she wouldn't notice the dirt all over his clothes.

She looked at him and sighed.

"Alright, it's okay. But next time you better call me and tell me where you are." Chiro looked at the sad look in his mother's eyes and almost told her where he had really been. But it wasn't time yet, she would never let him go back out into the outskirts.

"Okay," He lied, "I will. Well, I'm gonna change before dinner."

He walked into his room, closed the door and sighed. He hated lying to her, he almost never did, but he had to keep the monkeys a secret for now. He would tell her, he promised himself that.

* * *

Sparx and Nova watched the whole scene from outside his window.

"His mom's pretty." Nova commented quietly. Sparx just nodded. It was unlike him to remain so quiet, but he really didn't want to Nova any angrier at him.

"I wonder where his dad is." Nova said out loud. Sparx shrugged.

"Sparx, Nova come in." Gibson's voice came over their communicators.

"Yeah?" Sparx asked.

"Is the boy home yet?"

"Yup we just saw him enter his apartment."

"Good, Antauri wants you to come back now. I need to run a diagnostics test and make sure all of our internal programs are running."

"Alright." Nova answered. "We'll be there in a bit." Both of them closed their ear antennas. Sparx stood up to leave when Nova touched his arm.

"Hey Sparx I'm sorry." She said while looking down.

"About?"

"Yelling at you earlier. It's just the city has changed so much since we went to sleep and I guess…" Her voice trailed off as she looked hastily away. Sparx couldn't be sure in the dark, but it looked like she might have been blushing.

"You guess…" He prompted her.

"I guess I wanted to make you guys where still the same after all that time asleep." Sparx smiled triumphantly. Nova turned around and saw him grinning like a loon. She hit him in the stomach and then flew back towards the robot.

Sparx doubled over in pain for a minute and watched Nova fly off with a smile on his face. _Oh yeah, that's why I like her.

* * *

_

Antauri sat in his room with his eyes closed. It was dusty and bugs had some how gotten in and ate holes through most of his stuff, but he was okay with that. They were just materials and they didn't matter. What matter was what he was doing right now. He was searching for a presence, a dark presence.

Suddenly he was grabbed by some kind of dark claw.

_Hello Antauri, _the evil voice whispered, _It has been far to long since we last saw each other. _Antauri tried to struggle out of the evil thing's grasp but it only cackled and squeezed harder.

_I hope you enjoyed you rest, I know I did. Well do not fret, I'm sure we will reunite soon. Until then, good bye. _

The dark claw dropped him and he shook his head.

"This is not good."

* * *

Who could the dark presence be? Well if you're asking that then you have obviously never seen the series.

Sorry for that Spova moment there, just couldn't resist. Probably won't be any more of those in this. This is about Chiro after all.

Well I guess I own you guys an apology for making this so late. I just got into writing _Gidget_ and then I found the awesome book series _Percy Jackson and the Olympians. _It rocks, I read the whole thing in like 5 days, and after reading till 3:00 am you really don't want to write a chapter of anything.

Any who, sorry for the short hiatus, to be honest I couldn't get into this chapter very well. I see the problem with trying to write three different stories at once and I'm just ready to get this part over with. I tired of flash backs, they can get confusing.

I ended up writing most of Ch. 5 before this so I had to go back and fix it too. I'll get around to updating T.C.B.H. soon so keep an eye out for that. Later Gators! Rawr!


	5. Chapter 5

Ch. 5

The next day Chiro was up and ready to leave before his mom even awake. He was wearing a simple red t-shirt and blue jeans while he was sitting on the couch, tying his shoes when his mother sleepily walked out of her room and looked at him.

She wore as simple rose covered silk robe that reached just above her knees. Her hair was down and shinned like gold as she walked past the window and into the dawn sunlight.

"Good morning Honey." She said as she rubbed her eyes. "Where are you off to this early in the morning?"

"Just exploring the city." Chiro answered. He focused his attention on his feet intently, he wasn't technically lying, sort' a.

"Okay, just be careful." She said as she walked into their kitchen to make coffee.

"I will be. Bye!" Chiro said as he grabbed his backpack and ran out the front door.

As he walk out of his building, he hoped he would be able to find his way back to the robot. This was just not an opportunity you passed up, he was going to meet with the heroes of history! This was like his dream come true! Well, he never expected them to me robotic monkeys, but it was still pretty cool. He smiled to himself as he turned left and started walking towards the outskirts.

* * *

The first thing Nova noticed was how warm her back felt. Then she realized there was no good explanation for this. She turned over to find the source of the warmth and saw Sparx's own back cuddled up and sound asleep against hers.

He face burned a red almost identical to Sparx's and she quickly pushed him away from her, this caused him to drop off the ledge they had been snoozing on and fall ten feet to the fire escape below.

Sparx hit with a loud and painful sounding clang. He quickly shot up and looked around confused.

"Wha-? Where?" He asked while he looked around trying to get his bearings. Then he remembered, he and Nova were outside of that kid's home. After Gibson ran a diagnostics test on them, Antauri ordered them to return and keep an eye on Chiro.

He said that the Vernon Mystics had told him that they should keep a close eye on him till they told him the truth, but Sparx had a feeling that it was something else, something evil.

"Aw did you fall off the building in your sleep?" Nova called down, waking him up from his day dream.

"I guess." Sparx said as he sat up. "When did we fall asleep?"

"I don't know." Nova said as she looked across the ally and into Chiro's apartment's big bay window. "Hey Sparx get up."

"Why?"

"Because that kid just left."

"Already? Early riser." Sparx commented as he flew up and landed beside Nova on the roof. They watched as Chiro walked out of the apartment and turned towards the abandoned part of the city.

* * *

Chiro walked silently through the city as the pleasant, early morning sun warmed his skin, completely unaware of his lemon and ruby guardians.

Before the sun had even had topped the skyscrapers, Chiro had found his way back into the rundown part of the city. He glanced down alleys, looking for a way into the outskirts. Most alleys ended in dead ends or piles of trash. Finally, he found one that ended in a boarded up fence.

He walked through the trash littered entryway. He got to the end, and pushed on several of the boards to the side. On the third try, one gave way and made a kind of swinging pendulum. He pushed it to the side and looked out. It lead out into the outskirts just as he hoped it would.

He let the make shift door swing back as he ran down to the end of the alley again. He tried his best to remember what the entrance the alley looked like. It was thin, just big enough that two people standing shoulder to shoulder could walk through it. He also noticed that the building to the right had a faded red door.

He nodded to himself and swiftly walked back down the alley and walked through the fence. In a few minutes he was walking through the forest again.

The forest was even more serene and calm in the morning. Chiro walked slowly through, just enjoying the day. Nova and Sparx quickly sped ahead of him on their jet packs and used the entrance in the Super robot's neck to swiftly go in.

They jumped in their pods and slid down to the command center. Nova jumped into her bubble chair and tried to act like she was doing nothing. Sparx leaned against his chair in a nonchalance fashion and began to polish his magnets.

Gibson watched the whole thing from the computer terminal. He had been running yet another scan on the robot. Otto's sea foam green legs could be seen sticking out from under the computer terminal.

"What are you two doing?" Gibson asked.

"What are they doing?" Otto echoed as he scooted out from under the terminal.

"We were here the whole time." Was all that Sparx said. Chiro walked in to the command center as Otto stood up and dusted his self off. This did no go considering he was covered in oil and it only succeeded in rubbing it deeper into his fur.

"Hi Chiro!" Otto yelled as he waved happily to their guest. "Did you bring food today?"

"Um, was I suppose to?" Chiro asked confused, but smiling.

"No, I just thought I would ask though." Otto said grinning widely.

"Ah Chiro." Antauri said as he walked into the room. "Good to see you this morning, how are you?"

"Oh, I'm great." Chiro replied while smiling widely. "I'm ready for the tour now."

"Wonderful." Antauri said "Well this is the Command Center." Antauri said as he sweep his hand around the room. Chiro looked in awe at the huge computer that was working now.

"Cool, what do you do with that?" He asked

"We use it to check on the city and make sure everything is okay." Otto said happily, "You know we have to make sure there are no formle-" Gibson quickly covered his mouth.

"We use it to protect the city." Gibson finished. Chiro raised an eyebrow but said nothing, to be honest he could care less.

"So you guys really are like super heroes huh? Just like the books said." Chiro said as he walked over to one of the weird bubble chairs and examined it.

"Just curious," Gibson said as he took his hand off Otto face and gave him a _keep quite _look. "What do the books say about us?"

"Just that a team of robotic somethings protected the city." Chiro said as he walked around examining every little thing. "We were never told what you actually were because the documents from that time were lost in some kind of fire or something."

"A fire?" Nova said as she stood up from her chair. "I don't remember a fire."

"It happened right after we though you guys left." Chiro answered, "There was this big fire that destroyed almost all the city and so all the documents form that time were lost and a lot of people died."

"Right after we went to sleep, there was a disaster?" Otto asked horrified. "You mean if we had stayed awake we could have stopped it? Antauri you said it was best if we went to sleep." Otto said to his black friend. "We said the city would be safer!"

"Oh all the historians said it was the best thing that could have happened." Chiro explained quickly, "It fire made us rebuild the city with more fire retardant materials and we made huge technological advances. It helped us stand on our own two feet."

"Really?" Otto asked relived.

"Yup." Chiro said with a smile. Otto sighed happily.

"So they didn't remember how many protectors there was?" Antauri asked.

"Yeah," Chiro said, "I guess they didn't think about it till later that they should rerecord history and by then not that many people who remembered it were still alive. They never really knew all the specifics to what Shugazoom was like before the great fire. Why do you ask?"

"I was just pondering why you looked so surprised when you saw us." Antauri answered. "Let's move on."

They walked out of the Command Center and down a hallway.

"So there's something that I've been wondering." Chiro said as Antauri lead the tour. "You know how Sparx can change his hands into magnets? Can everyone else do that?"

Nova smiled widely and nodded. "Oh yeah, wait till you see my transformers." She transformed her hands into giant fists and proudly showed them off.

"Whoa." Chiro said as he looked at them, he decided then that he did not want to be on the receiving side of her anger.

"I have cool ones too!" Otto said happily as he transformed his saws. "I can use these to slice-" He looked over to Gibson who glared at him, obviously they didn't want them talking about the Formless. "To slice bad guys." Otto finished.

"Wicked sweet!" Chiro said as Gibson cleared his throat and transformed his drills.

"Let's just say," Gibson said as Chiro examined his drills with his hands behind his back. "Enemies _freeze _at the site of my weaponry." Gibson chuckled at his own joke that Chiro didn't get. Sparx, Nova, and Otto all rolled their eyes at Gibson bad pun and Antauri smiled politely.

"What about you Antauri?" Chiro asked. Antauri smile slightly and transformed his hand into a claw. His grin widened a little as Chiro tried to figure out what was so special about them. Antauri closed his eyes as his claws turned green and he suddenly jumped at a wall and fazed through it.

"Whoa!" Chiro yelled as Antauri fazed through the other way. He landed on the ground in a crouch and kept a straight face.

"That was awesome!" Antauri just stood up calmly and dusted his self off.

"Let's continue the tour." He said simply as he turned around and resumed walking.

The tour continued uniformly. They saw the pilot simulation room, and the fist rocket four, and the training room where Chiro saw some of the team's moves. Then they went to Gibson's lab where an extremely long and boring lecture ensued. After they had dragged Gibson out of there, they headed down to Otto workshop where he showed Chiro ever single of his little useless gadgets and gizmos that he was working on.

Antauri briefly stopped at the meditation room and then finally they ended back up at the Command Center.

"Wow this place is as big on the inside as it looks like on the outside." Chiro commented as the team ate sandwiches Otto had managed to make from some of the preserved food in the kitchen.

Everyone sat in their assigned color and that's when Chiro finally realized that there was an extra chair. He was sitting in the orange one that seemed to belong to no one.

"Who's chair is this?" He asked as he munched on a sandwich. The whole team tensed up.

"It belongs to whom ever our leader is." Antauri finally answered. Chiro tilted his head to one side.

"Who's that?" Chiro asked. The team glanced to Antauri to answer for them.

"Chiro do you know what the Power Primate is?" Chiro shook his head.

"No, should I?"

"I didn't except you to. You see it's a force that connects the entire team and gives us our 'super powers' if you will." Antauri explained.

"Okay," Chiro said as he leaned back into the chair. "What does that have to do with who your leader is?" Antauri smiled at him.

"Chiro I believe that _you _are our leader." Antauri said calmly. The team gasped and turned to Antauri, had he really just told him that?

Chiro froze in shock. "Wha-what?" He asked as he leaned forward. "I'm your leader?"

Antauri nodded, "You see, _certain _things happened that caused our old leader to leave, I believe you are meant to take his place."

"But how is that possible? How do you know it's me?" Chiro asked.

"Because I can sense a high amount of Power Primate in you."

"But how come I have never noticed this, 'power primate' before?" Chiro asked confused.

"You told us you were shocked when you flipped that big switch, correct?" Antauri asked, Chiro nodded. "I believe it was a this time that the Power Primate entered you."

"So now I'm suppose to be your leader?" Chiro asked confused.

"Well it will take some training till you can truly take over the leadership responsibilities of the team, but yes you are the new leader of Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force Go."

"Super Robot what now?" Chiro asked, this was the first time he had ever heard to full name of the team.

"You'll get it in time." Antauri said with a smile on his face, "But you must realize that this information must not leave the super robot."

"Why?"

"It will take time for the city to get readjusted to our presence, then we will revile that you are our leader."

Chiro sat in silence for a few minutes, digesting what had just been said.

"So I can't tell anyone this?" Chiro asked.

"Yes, I think that would be for the best." Antauri answered.

Chiro sat there silently, how could he not tell his mom, or Jennet, or Glenny and B.T.? This was just to exciting to keep a secret. Would he really not tell them.?

"Okay," Chiro resolved, "I'll keep quite for now, but as soon as you're ready to about who I am I wanna tell my mom and friends myself."

Antauri nodded, "That perfectly alright with me as long as the team doesn't have any problems, do you?" Antauri addressed the rest of the first time in ten minutes. They had been sitting there silently since the beginning of the conversation. They all shook their heads.

"Good, that's all we wanted to discuss with you, Chiro. We can start your training tomorrow."

"Um, well I have school tomorrow and we're going on a field trip so I won't be able to come here till the afternoon." Chiro explained.

"That's fine," Antauri said, " we certainly don't want any one to get suspicious." Chiro nodded as he stood up to leave, he needed time to think about this whole thing by himself.

"I'll see you guys tomorrow then, bye."

"Good bye." Antauri said with an amused smile on his face. The rest of the team said their various good byes and watched as he left the robot. Finally after Chiro was gone they all slowly turned to Antauri and looked at him with shocked expressions.

"Did you really just tell him he is the new leader?" Sparx finally asked perplexed.

"I did." Antauri replied.

"Why…?"

"I thought this was the best time to tell him."

"What about everything else?" Otto blurted out. "Why can't we tell him about the Formless, and … _Him_?"

"We must introduce him to the different elements of our purpose with caution." Antauri answered.

"But we can tell him that he's the hero we've been waiting on?" Nova asked. "What can we exactly tell him?"

"I would prefer if we disclosed information about our enemies to him at a later time. This includes Mandarin and the Formless."

"What about him being the 'Chosen One'?" Gibson asked.

"We should just let him think that it was chance that chose him for this job. No need to go into depth about the powers that control us now."

Everyone nodded with understanding.

"Good," Antauri said, he started to stand up and thought momentarily about telling them about his encounter with _Him_ but decided not to yet. No reason to make them worry when he knew only so little. "Excuse me while I go to reflect in meditation. You are free to do as you wish for the rest of the day."

The team quickly stood up in unison and saluted Antauri as he left the room and then went on their own ways.

* * *

Wow the monkeys are really… formal. Why did this change? Chiro mostly, after awhile of having a kid lead you, ya stop being so formal all the time.

Ugh, this too sooooo long to write, sorry I just didn't want this to turn out like crap (but it might still have) so it too forever to finish. Probably one more chapter of flashback before we get back into the 'present'.

Man Antauri is even more aloof now than in the show, isn't he? There's a reason for that though, he's been the leader for a little while now. Perhaps after we get done with Chiro's past, I'll go into depth of the monkey team's and how they reacted with Mandarin.

Okay, first thing, I've made a new poll that asks you what your favorite story is and which one you would like to see updated the most. I need to know, I have a lot on my plate right now so new chapters might start slowing down for a little while now. We do you want to be updated the most?

Second, on my you tube account I made a pretty good preview video for Book 1: Gidget. This is just to promote it and we are past it in the story, but it is still pretty cool and just encase you want to check it out you can. I'm not holding you to that but it was also one of the reasons it took for ever to finish this.

Okay I'm done for now. Later. R&R and leave comments!


	6. Chapter 6

This is still part of the never-ending flash back, so there is a small Chinet (Chiro and Jennet in case you forgot her, it's been so long I did) part that would seem odd if they were dating. After this we will _finally_ get back into the present. Thank God.

And this is a long chapter. Lots of words!

* * *

Chiro stood beside the bus aimlessly. Mr. Gideon was telling them the exact same rules they heard every time they took this trip.

"Don't go off alone. Don't leave without telling a teacher where you are going. Don't go anywhere without your buddy. Don't-" He continued rambling off the rules.

Chiro groaned, he was usually excited about the annual school trip to the edge of the Land of Wasted Years, it was the only time anyone ever got to leave the city, but this time he wasn't. There was other things he could be doing with his time instead of going on this trip. Training to be a super hero was just one of those things.

He still couldn't believe what had happened yesterday, it all seemed like a dream. He didn't think that something like this could happen to him. But it was and he was going to train later today. He had almost skipped the trip this year, it was going to be the same as last year's trip anyways. Everyone would get on a bus and head across the giant bridge and over into the land of wasted years where they would hear a really long speech about how they need to learn from the mistakes of their ancestors, be peaceful, and hopefully not destroy themselves like they did, then eat lunch, pile back onto the bus, and head back across the bridge.

Maybe the trip was losing it's flare because he was getting older. Stuff like this would be lame before long, so maybe he could enjoy it this one last time.

"Are we clear on the rules?" Mr. Gideon asked annoyed.

"Yes sir." Everyone answered in unison.

"Good, now let's get on the bus." He finished as the kids started to rush in."And don't run!" He yelled over the screaming children. Chiro quickly grabbed a seat and sat down. Jennet slipped in beside him, B.T. practically jumped over both of them to get the seat behind them and Glenny was last on the bus, as usual.

"Why do we have to go on this stupid trip again?" He huffed.

"Really," B.T. said "We've been here like 20 times already."

"Because it's tradition." Jennet answered them as she got comfortable.

"Well it's a stupid tradition." B.T. mumbled.

"I bet Chiro doesn't think it's stupid." Jennet said confidently, she turned to Chiro, "Do you?"

"Huh?" Chiro said as he turned away from the window, the bus lurched forward and all the kids braced themselves in their seats.

"I said you don't think this field trip is lame." Jennet said again.

"Oh, sure." Chiro said as the bus took a sharp turn and he was thrown against the window. He hated when Mrs. Rush drove. She was like 90 years old and she couldn't see 10 feet in front of her. She made a sharp left turn to get onto the interstate and the bus momentarily drove on two wheels. Several girls screamed in terror before the bus finally landed on four wheels again.

"I hate when that old bat drives." Glenny complained, "She makes me car sick."

"You better not throw up on me!" B.T. yelled as he scooted closer to the window.

"At least we're always the first ones there." Chiro said as Mrs. Rush weaved in between cars.

"Mrs. Rush," Mr. Gideon said anxiously, "Our exit is coming up."

"What?" Mrs. Rush asked loudly, "What are we hexing?"

"Our exit is coming up!" Mr. Gideon yelled.

"Huh?" She asked confused.

"Our EXIT!" Mr. Gideon yelled as he grabbed the wheel and turned it right, hard. Everyone lurched to the left, Jennet was thrown into Chiro's arms, and Glenny was thrown against his window where he promptly lost his breakfast.

"Glenny!" B.T. wailed as his portly friend stuck his head out the window. Jennet quickly pushed herself up and her and Chiro's faces grew red.

"Sorry." She mumbled.

"No problem." Chiro stammered back. The bus sped along the bridge that led out to the zone of wasted years.

"We're here!" Mrs. Rush rust voice crooned. She pulled the hand brake and the bus screeched to a halt. A horde of grateful students fled out of the bus, Mr. Gideon leading them.

"Mr. G," B.T. said as they exited the bus, "Why do we always have to be driven by Mrs. Rush?"

"Because she's always driven class B." Mr. Gideon explained, "She drove me on field-trips when I was your age."

"Yeah, but was she half blind and deaf back then?" Jennet asked.

"Be back here before the rest of the buses arrive, until then you have the place to yourselves." Mr. Gideon said simply before he turned around to find a quiet place to read. The four teens looked at each other and rolled their eyes, then went exploring.

"Where were you yesterday?" Jennet asked Chiro as the quartet walked through the half dead forest on the outskirts of the Forbidden Zone.

"Oh, I was around." He answered quickly.

"Really?" Jennet asked, "Because B.T., Glenny, and me checked the arcade, Gatslapers' place, the park, and all your favorite comic book stores. Define _around._"

"You must have just missed me." Chiro said as he started to sweat bullets. He remembered the promise he had made to Antauri, and he had no intention to break it.

"Hmm." Jennet said as she walked on. They heard the rest of the buses pulling up so everyone headed back to the meeting place.

* * *

"Everyone gather around!" Miss Rayne, the always nice class A teacher, said happily. "We're going to learn about the history of Shugazoom!"

All the kids groaned and her smile faded. She was a young woman, this was her first year teaching, and she had been lucky enough to get the smartest class of the 7th grade. She was medium height, soft emerald curls surrounded her glowing face. Many of the students (and teachers) had crushes on her.

"Aw, come on guys. It's fun and interesting!" She continued energetically. "A little help?" She begged the other three teachers. Mr. Gideon glanced at her momentarily before pushing his glasses back up the bridge of his nose and turning back to his book.

It was no real secret that Mr. Gideon resented Miss Rayne. He had been trying to become the teacher of class A for most of his career, they were the best and smartest class after all, and just when it looked like he would achieve his goal, the yuppie, up-start Miss Rayne took it out from under his nose. She had no clue that she had done this, but that didn't stop Mr. Gideon from taking an immediate dislike of her.

Mrs. Smith, the cranky, strict teacher of class C, rolled her eyes with annoyance. She was about thirty years to old to teach. Her silver hair was always pulled back into a tight, no-nonsense bun and she always smelled heavily of peppermint. Up-tight was an understatement for this woman. She always got the rowdy, unruly kids, but by the end of the school year many of them were only ghost of their former selves. She made polite little machines out of them.

"Don't ask them to listen, make them." She said crossly. Miss. Rayne's smile flattered for a moment before she turned to Mr. Motors, the teacher of class D.

"What do you say, Motors?" She asked happily. The biggest teacher of the entire 7th grade was to busy whipping cheese puff dust of his shirt to notice or answer her. It seemed like he was always trying to get the food crumbs off of himself. He had a black, slicked comb over, and a very non-caring attitude that matched that of his classes. Class D had the slowest, most uncaring kids in the entire school. Only an extreme tutoring in summer school had kept B.T. and Glenny out of his class. And a pathetic blubbering show to the principal had landed them in Mr. Gideon's class instead of Mrs. Smith.

Mr. Motors continued to ignore Miss Rayne.

Her eye twitched momentarily before she turned back to the four classes of students.

"Alright then, I'll tell you the history!" She said as happily as she could.

B.T. groaned loudly, "But we've already heard it-"

"I'm going to tell you!" Miss. Rayne not so calmly screeched. B.T. shrunk back and tired to hide behind Chiro and Jennet, which was hard considering he was almost a foot taller than both of them.

"Okay then," She breathed deeply and pushed a strand of curly hair back behind her ear. "Well we all know that there was a terrible and violent war several millennia ago."

"Shugazoom was thrown into a civil war so horrible that permanently scarred the planet. The result of the war is apparent all around you." Her eyes darted behind the children, everyone turned and looked at the barren wasteland that lied beyond the thin forest. Crooked, dead trees twisted painfully up into the sky. Clumps of brown rocks were everywhere. The yellow, sickly grass was the only living thing in site and it stuck out in bunches everywhere.

"The war ravaged the land, destroyed the people, and almost left Shugazoom completely uninhabitable." Miss Rayne continued.

"Except for a small island village. Their isle was in the middle of the largest lake on Shugazoom. They were so far from any other country or land that they were left completely unaffected by the genocide. They are our ancestors and were the only living creatures left on the planet. So they began to rebuild the world, little by little, until they accomplished what you see before you," She made a large gesture to the City. Sparkling multicolored skyscrapers touched a beautiful blue sky.

"Now the reason we come here," She continued to the disapproval of several children. A quick glance quieted all groans and moans.

"…is so that we can learn from the mistakes of the inhabitants before us. Only by studying their mistakes can we truly grow and take one more step towards universal peace. Any questions?" She finished with a big smile and got a small round of applause.

A small quiet girl raised her hand slowly.

"If we are striving towards universal peace, then why do people from other planets never visit us?"

"Because we don't have any extraordinary resources, nor are we really a vacation hot spot. Besides, Ranger Seven is the only planet in our solar system that is even remotely inhabited, and this is only because of H.O.O.P." Miss Rayne answered simply.

"And because universal peace is a joke." Mr. Gideon said without looking up from his book.

Miss Rayne turned around with her jaw dropped.

"Mr. Gideon!" She gasped.

"It's true and you know it." He snapped back, "You know as well as I do, no one comes here because there is nothing of value here so there is no reason to want to take it over."

"And because of _Him._" Mr. Gideon finished darkly. The children started mumbling to each other. Their parents use to threaten them with _His _name. He was the fuel of nightmares. Some people would question his existence if it weren't for the fact that his name was practically printed in every book in the city.

"I believe that is enough story time for today." Mrs. Smith suddenly said, "Everyone is dismissed for lunch." The children floated away slowly, some headed towards the edge of the half dead forest, others chose to sit on the bridge with their feet hanging off the side. Some just sat in the yellow grass, trying to enjoy their lunch.

"Well that was cheerful." Chiro said as he sat down on a bumpy rock cluster.

"Tell me about it." Jennet said as she looked down and smoothed her skirt out over her legs. Chiro couldn't stop himself from glancing down as she did this.

"So what do you have for lunch?" She asked suddenly.

Chiro sighed and reached down towards his backpack. He came back up it a plastic bag full of disgusting green balls of goo.

"Your mom really pushes the collar greens, doesn't she?" Glenny asked. Chiro solemnly nodded as he opened the bag and let the gross vegetables fall to the ground. Jennet tore her sandwich down the middle and gave half of it to Chiro. This was a ritual they commonly performed ever since Chiro's mother had gotten those 20 boxes of collar greens on sale.

"Well at least this day is almost over." Glenny said happily. "Just the bus ride back to school, and it's over."

"Yeah," B.T. said as he rolled his eyes, "A bus ride with the Rusty Rush. Glenny don't eat to much, you'll just lose it anyways."

Glenny looked down at his sandwich and sighed heavily before handing it to Chiro without a word.

"Now I'm going to be hungry and car sick." Glenny whined sadly.

* * *

Antauri was once again in the meditation room. He was calmly gathering his breath when suddenly the room went cold. His senses were alerted but he remained still. There was a faint wisp of a feeling, something was wrong…

Antauri jumped up and darted out of the meditation room and into the control room. Gibson was walking around the room, checking things off of a list of things he need Otto to fix. Antauri ignored him and walked over to the computer and started typing furiously. Gibson raised an eyebrow and walked over to him.

"Is there something you need, Antauri?" Gibson asked as he walked up beside him and watched him type.

"Did Chiro mention where his school was taking their trip today?" Antauri asked.

"Not that I recall," Gibson answered, "Why do you need to know?"

"I have a very bad feeling in the pit of my stomach and I believe it would be most beneficial if we located him immediately." Antauri answered.

He turned and looked Gibson in the eye, "I fear our ultimate enemy has returned."

* * *

Class B was standing around, waiting to get on to the bus again. The teachers were counting heads and making sure that everyone was there and no one was lost.

"…twenty-nine, thirty!" Mr. Gideon finished counting, "Good, that's everyone. Alright time to get on the bus." Mr. Gideon got on first to make sure all his kids got on the bus.

Chiro and his group were in the front of the line so they were one of the first on the bus. As Glenny walked through, the door suddenly slammed behind him.

"Hey!" He yelped. He glared at Mrs. Rush, but she didn't look at him. She didn't even lift her head up. Glenny rubbed his backside and walked to his seat grumpily. Mr. Gideon noticed the door was closed and figured the she had closed on accident.

"Mrs. Rush! Students still need to get inside!" He yelled at her, but she started to turn the bus on. "Mrs. Rush!" He said louder. She kept ignoring him and the few children that were on the bus looked up confused. The kids outside bus were getting annoyed and started pounding on the door. Chiro started getting a weird feeling in the pit of his stomach. Something was wrong; very, very wrong. Mrs. Rush put the bus in gear and slammed on the gas. The bus lurched forward, the kids were thrown into seats, and Mr. Gideon hit the floor.

"Mrs. Rush!" He screeched. She peeled out of the make-shift dirt parking lot and started to speed down the bridge. The kids started screaming, and Chiro looked around him. There was Jennet, B.T., Glenny, Mr. Gideon, a couple of previously giggling girls, a boy with blonde hair, and himself.

"Mr. G!" Jennet yelled, "What's going on?"

"I don't know!" He yelled back, "Some thing's wrong with Mrs. Rush!"

"Did she forget to take her meds?" B.T. asked as the bus started to weave across the road. Suddenly the woman they thought was Mrs. Rush morphed into a black humanoid creature. All the children screamed and coward in their seats.

"To the back of the bus!" Mr. Gideon yelled. Everyone scrambled backwards.

"What is that?" Glenny yelled as the thing began to drip black ooze. Glenny gulped, "I'm glad I didn't eat lunch today."

The thing suddenly slammed on the brakes and the humans were slammed into the back of the bus seats. It stood up quickly and walked swiftly towards the terrified kids. Ooze dripped from it's fingers and splattered all over the green bus seats as it walked towards the kids. Mr. Gideon stood protectively in front of them and stared down the monster. The black creature just grabbed him by the neck and threw him over his shoulder like a rag doll. Mr. Gideon landed painfully on the top of several bus seats and laid there, a crumpled mass.

B.T. and Glenny were cowarding behind the last two seats and Jennet looked oddly calm. But her death grip on Chiro's forearm told a different story. The two screaming girls plastered themselves against the back windows, the blonde boy was frozen in place in the middle of the aisle. Chiro grabbed his shoulder and pushed him behind his back without even thinking. The disgusting not-Rush started walking towards them again and Chiro took a step backwards. He slowly reached behind him for the handle to the emergency exit in the back of the bus. Jennet's eyes followed his hand's movement and realized what he was planning. She squeezed his forearm and he glanced back at her. She flicked her gaze to the door and Chiro nodded slightly to her. She nodded back and slowly inched herself to Chiro's other side, blocking the monster's view of the door handle.

"Hey ugly!" Chiro yelled to get its attention. It glanced at him and started moving towards him again. Jennet reached behind and grasped the door handle. The two girls noticed what she was doing and gasped.

Rapidly Jennet twirled around and opened the door. The girls darted past her and were out of the bus first. The blonde boy pushed passed her as she turned around and grabbed B.T. and Glenny and threw them out. The black not-Rush growled an inhuman sound and swatted at Chiro who jumped back to avoid it's grasp.

"Come on!" Jennet yelled as she grabbed Chiro's hand and pulled him through the door after her. They both jumped down and slammed the exit door just as the creature lunged towards them. The not-Rush splattered against the door and started to slide down it. It pooled started to seep under the door and onto the pavement Jennet and Chiro jumped backwards to avoid getting her on their shoes.

A shrill scream made them both quickly turn around and gasp. They were surrounded by those gross black things. All looking at them with identical expressions of horror.

Chiro gulped, "Any ideas of how we're getting out of this one?"

"No." Jennet answered with a wavering voice. The black monsters started to close in on them and the children formed a small knot of bodies. Jennet grabbed Chiro's hand and he squeezed it tightly. The creatures reached towards them slowly…

"Whirling Destructo saw!" A deep voice rang out. A green saw sped pass Chiro, just inches from his nose. The black creature exploded and drenched the children in ooze. All three of the girls screeched with disgust. Chiro whipped his head towards the voice and gasped.

Five rainbow colored monkeys were standing there heroically. The monsters hissed and screeched at them.

"Mobilize team!" Antauri yelled as the team split up and destroyed the black monsters.

"Magno Ball Blazer!" Sparx yelled as he threw a sparking ball at the creatures.

"Lady Tomahawk!" Nova yelled as she slammed her fists against the ground and the bridge started to shake violently.

"Freeze, Formless!" Gibson yelled as he shot some kind of solution at some the 'Formless' and they froze on contact. Chiro finally got his joke from yesterday.

"Claw Disruptor!" Antauri yelled as sliced through the- what Chiro assumed were- Formless.

"Why are chattering monkeys saving us?" B.T. asked confused and shocked.

"Chattering?" Chiro echoed. He heard every word they were saying. Then it finally made sense why the monkeys had freaked out when he had talked to them. No one else could understand them.

"Whoa." Chiro said quietly. Not only was he now a super hero, he was a bilingual one.

"You said it." Jennet said in awe. Chiro turned to her shocked, could she read his mind. Then he realized that she was talking about the team's fighting skills. In just a few swift moves, they had annihilated all of the Formless. The team regrouped and stood in a heroic pose looking at the kids. They all stood there in silence, Chiro glanced at Antauri and looked at him like _how did you know?_

_We will discuss it later. _Antauri's voice answered in his head. Chiro stood there gaped-mouthed as Mr. Gideon walked through the bus door, rubbing his face.

"I feel like I've been hit by a-" He stopped in mid sentence and looked at the five colored monkeys. "Oh my God…" Sparx turned to Chiro and winked before all five blasted off and back towards the outskirts.

* * *

"That was great!" Nova cheered as they walked back in the robot. "Do you know how long it's been since we did a good ole' Formless butt whooping?"

"Far to long." Sparx answered her rhetorical question.

"It was awesome!" Otto yelled, "I forgot how much fun that could be!"

"Am I to assume that we will tell Chiro of the Skeleton King now?" Gibson asked Antauri. Everyone stopped their celebration to look to their soon to be second-in-command.

"Your assumption would be correct." Antauri answered. "I believe that would be the most wise course of action." The team nodded in agreement.

* * *

Chiro busted into the control room in a flurry of leaves and dust. He took huge gulps of air as he tried to compose himself. Antauri was meditating calmly in the middle of the room while the others busied themselves with inane tasks.

"Hello Chiro." Antauri said calmly with a ghost of a smile on his lips. Chiro stood and stared at him before he uttered a word.

"How did you know?" Chiro asked flabbergasted.

"I had a feeling that you were in trouble. That is one of the side effects of the power primate, it connects all of us." Antauri answered solemnly. He unfurled his legs and stood on the ground. He motioned towards the orange bubble chair. Chiro walked over and flopped down in exhaustion.

"I believe we have some explanations to give." Antauri said as he sat down in his own chair. Everyone else followed his lead and sat down. "But first I am interested to hear what the humans had to say about us."

"They are all pretty shocked." Chiro answered, "At first they didn't believe us, they said it was shock that caused us to hallucinate, but Mr. Gideon stood up for us. Everyone is pretty freaked out now."

The team gave him worried glances.

"Are they afraid of us?" Otto asked.

"No! They aren't afraid of you, just afraid of what you guys being back means." Chiro answered.

"And the bus driver?" Antauri inquired.

"She was unconscious on another bus." Chiro answered. "That thing-"

" The Formless." Gibson answered for him.

"Yeah," Chiro continued, "that formless must have just knocked her out and took her place."

"That's good." Antauri said with a nodded.

"Why?" Chiro asked, "Do they usually not?"

"Let's just say the Formless are not the nicest evil creatures around." Nova answered.

"Why did they attack us anyways?" Chiro asked.

"Not 'us', Kid." Sparx spoke up, "You."

"Me?" Chiro asked shocked, "Because I'm your new leader? But I haven't done anything to them!"

"You don't have to." Gibson said, "They follow the orders of _Him._"

"Him?" Chiro echoed, "You don't mean-"

"Yes," Antauri said, "The Skeleton King."

"You mean you guys are here to fight the Skeleton King?" Chiro asked quietly.

"No, we're here to defeat him!" Otto said energetically, "And now that you're here, we can!" Chiro stared at them for a few minutes.

"I'm really going to be a super hero, aren't I?" He finally asked.

"Yes," Antauri said, "Yes you are. You must learn battle commands and what it takes to be a leader."

"And we going to have to train you in combat." Nova said, "Cause trust me Chiro, you are not ready to take on a Formless."

"You also must learn basic medical techniques." Gibson said, "Though I have no time to teach you those, I suppose I will have to."

"And you're going to have to learn to pilot your vehicle." Sparx said.

"Vehicle?" Chiro asked.

"Yup, you think this robot is just for show? Heck no! It can break apart into six different vehicles, you get to pilot one of them." Sparx said grinning.

"I can teach you some basic mechanics!" Otto yelled, "It will be a blast!" Chiro looked down at his feet. The team sat there quietly, waiting for his response.

"I just have one question," He finally said. He flipped his head up and a huge smile was on his face.

"When can we start?"

* * *

Ding dong the flashback's done! Which flashback? The 45 page flashback! Ding dong the 45 ½ page flashback is done!

I really like how this one came out. I have been waiting all my life to have a reason to use flabbergasted, and now my dream is fulfilled I can die happy. We may finally get to see Jennet as more than a 2-d character! Yeah, you might be surprised as the part she plays in later chapters.

Speaking of 2-d characters, what was up with the random teacher interlude? Well what can I say? I literally though of them as I was typing and I fell in love with them. And I need a way to explain the history of Shugazoom. I might get around to writing a fic about that...

Miss Rayne seems like an awesome teacher, Mrs. Smith is as plain and boring as her name, and Mr. Motors, well I have a teacher just like him so who can resist?

Do you guys like the random teachers? I'm thinking about putting them in the fic later. Why? Cause I can! What do you think? Would you like to see them later or just forget about them? Tell me!

Leave comments please!


	7. Chapter 7

Well here we go, this part picks up in the present where we left off at the end of _**ch. 3**__,_ It took me three chapters to tell you that flash back arc, ridiculous!

Well here we go, there will be one more flash back in about 1-2 more chapters. I'm not sure yet, but it will be much shorter than three chapters long. Ah well, on with the show!

* * *

Chiro smiled as he walked through the robot, those first few days had been weird, to say the least. It had been almost two weeks since the battle with the Formless and Shugazoom had been quiet. Well, besides all the whispering done by the adults on their thoughts about why the Hyper force had returned. He walked into the control room and saw his new blue comrade at the computer.

"Hey Gibson." Chiro said cheerfully. Gibson turned to him issued a short greeting and then turned back to his work. Chiro sighed, he guessed that Gibson wasn't warmed up to him yet. Oh well, Antauri said it would take time. Otto popped out of no where and unexpectedly jumped on Chiro's back.

"Hey Chiro!" he yelled happily. "How was school today?"

"Hey Otto." Chiro replied after a breath and his heart restarting. "It was fine, how was your day?"

"Great! Wait till you see the defense system I set up. Are you here for your mechanical training?" Otto asked happily.

"No, that's on Mondays." Chiro said as Otto climbed off his back sadly. "Today is pilot practice with Sparx and then combat training with Nova."

"Oh," he said sighing, "Okay, well are you staying for dinner tonight?"

"Yup, my Mom won't be home till late." Chiro replied with a smile. Otto brightened up and ran to the kitchen to prepare a three course meal. As odd as he was, Chiro had to admit that Otto made a wicked chowder. With Otto gone, Gibson and Chiro stood in an awkward silence for a few minutes. Gibson kept his back turned to Chiro as he typed something into the computer.

"What are you up to, Gibson?" Chiro asked to finally break the ice. Gibson turned around and looked at him.

"I'm calculating the current coordinates of Shugazoom and comparing them with the previous ones we collected before our hibernation." He said simply before turning back around.

"I already told you that we have all of that cataloged in the City History's building." Chiro said, slightly hurt. "You could just get it from there."

Gibson gave a short chuckle and replied, "Well yes, you did say that, but I still prefer to double check just to make sure." Which was Gibson's way of saying he didn't trust Chiro, or humans, or both. Chiro sighed sadly and decided to give Gibson his space.

"Hey Kid!" Sparx said happily as he walked into the control room.

"Oh hey Sparx!" Chiro exclaimed as his red friend strolled towards him. "You ready to teach me some sick moves?" Sparx chuckled and shook his head.

"Sorry Kid," he said, "but Antauri specifically told me this was just a basic training simulation. Big number two says we have to keep out of the skies for now."

"Aww, why?" Chiro asked sadly. "I have to learn how to handle my vehicle eventually." Gibson sighed and rolled his eyes.

"We acknowledge that, but Antauri doesn't want the citizens to be informed that we still have and are using the Super Robot yet." Gibson explained without turning around. "We want the humans to get use to our presence before we revile our space craft."

"He said the same thing about me." Chiro sighed. Sparx smiled at Chiro, trying his best to cheer the kid up.

"Hey, you've been here long enough to know your way around the robot by now, right?" He asked.

Chiro nodded, "Mostly anyways."

"Great, why don't you head on over to the simulation room. I'll be there in a minute." Chiro nodded and walked out of the control room and down the hall. As soon as the door slid behind him, Sparx dropped his grin and turned around towards Gibson. "What the heck is your problem?" He asked angrily.

"Nothing." Gibson said shortly. "Why do you ask?"

"Seriously, can't you give the Kid a chance?" Sparx asked, annoyed, "He's been coming here for almost two weeks and you still won't say more than 10 words at most to him. You're usually a total chatterbox."

"I still don't trust him," Gibson said sighing, "and quite frankly, I'm surprised that you warmed up to him so quickly."

"It's just because Antauri told us he's the 'Chosen One' and all." Sparx mumbled. He didn't want Gibson to know it was because the kid really reminded him of himself.

"Yes well, Antauri still wants us to keep quite about that." Gibson warned.

"Yeah, yeah," Sparx said as he started to walk out of the control room. "Not a word about the 'Chosen One', Mandarin, or anything else that might help him understand what the heck is going on. I got it." And with that Sparx left Gibson shaking his head and sighing before he got back to work.

"So," Sparx asked as he walked up beside Chiro to the flight room. "What is it that you wanted to tell me this morning, ya know, right after you almost got turning into road kill?"

"Oh," Chiro said as he thought back to his conversation with Sparx that morning. "Just that I did well on a test today." Chiro said smiling. Sparx looked at him weird. "And I totally kissed Jennet, but that was all."

"Alright Kid!" Sparx cheered as he gave him a high five. "You really got up the guts to kiss her?"

"Well," Chiro said honestly, "she kissed me, but I would have to say that it was attributed to my charms and charisma that made her _want_ kiss me."

"Hey that's a lot farther than I've gotten with 'you know who'." Sparx said with a head tilt towards the combat room. "But way to go. Are you planning on giving her an encore anytime soon?" Sparx winked and elbowed Chiro in the side.

Chiro blushed and muttered some kinda answer like 'I hope so'. Sparx had to say that he was proud of the Kid. Even though he had only know he for a little while, he still like him. Sparx didn't have a clue as to what Gibson's problem was. He just needed to see how much fun Chiro could be.

* * *

"That was a great run Kid." Sparx said as he and Chiro left the simulation room.

"Yeah, I only crashed three times today." Chiro said as he rolled his eyes.

"That's not to bad." Sparx protested as they walked towards the training room. "A little more practice and you'll be ready for the real world."

"Sure." Chiro answered sadly, he didn't feel like arguing with him right now. He was still pretty bummed about Gibson not accepting him. "Sparx?" Chiro asked, "Why do you think Gibson doesn't like me?"

"What are you talking about Kid?" Sparx asked with a nervous smile on his face.

"Don't play dumb with me, I can tell he doesn't." Chiro said as he sighed.

"It's just because you aren't as smart as a super computer." Sparx explained. They waited for the door of the training room to open. "He does it to most people. And it could also be the fact that he has a stick shoved up his-"

"Sparx!" Nova snapped as he and Chiro walked into the combat practice room.

"What?" He asked innocently, "I wasn't going to say any-"

"Yeah right Sparx, of course you weren't." Nova said, she rolled her eyes. "Is there something that you want, or are you just here to ruin Chiro?"

"All right I can take a hint, I'll go." Sparx said as he backed out of the room. "Later Kid, later Sweet cheeks." Sparx dove out of the room just as Nova started to storm towards him. She stared furiously at the door, took a deep breath and turned back towards Chiro with a vibrant smile on her face.

"Ready to learn some more defensive techniques?" She asked cheerfully. Chiro nodded and walked towards her. Chiro liked her and everything, she was really nice, but Nova scared the crap out of him sometimes. He would have to remember to always stay on her good side.

"All right then," she started, "Do you remember those defensive poses I taught you last week? Let's start with those, I'll come at you and you try to block me…"

* * *

Chiro was sore all over after his practice with Nova. He felt beat up and bruised on every inch of his body.

"That was a great practice." Nova said. They had a few minutes till Otto was done fixing dinner, so Chiro went to explore the Robot more. This was the first time since waking the monkeys that he had been alone in the Super Robot with out a supervisor. Chiro recognized this hallway as the one that held the monkey's personal rooms, Antauri had shown him the meditation room last week. Chiro took notice of the doors as he passed, Sparx's room, Otto's, Gibson then Nova, Antauri and-

A mysterious sixth door that shouldn't have been there.

Chiro tilted his head to the side, he didn't remember anyone mentioning this door on one of the several tours he had been forced on. He walked up to it and waited for it to open, but it didn't budge. This was getting really odd, all the doors opened when you walked up to them. Chiro looked at the panel beside the door and pressed the manual open button. It slowly slid open, revealing a dusty old room that wasn't that different from the rest of the monkeys' rooms.

It had a recharging dock on one side, and old candles spread through the relatively plain room. A few old, ratty looking pillows covered the floor along with a single dark circular rug. Chiro stepped in and looked around, What was this? An extra bedroom obviously, but for who? Chiro ran his hand across the nearest wall and it came back extremely dusty, like the team hadn't bothered to clean this room, But why? What were they trying to do by practically hiding this room from him? He walked towards the center of the room and noticed the rug was orange, a orange that matched the orange tube Chiro had been using the last couple of days.

"What the heck is going on?" He finally asked himself.

"Everyone please report to the Dining Hall." Antauri's calm voice said over the intercom.

"Supper's ready!" Otto cheered in the background. Chiro ran out the door and closed it behind him, he would have to ask the team about this.

As Chiro walked into the dinning room, he completely forgot about the secret room. He was enticed by the aroma Otto's pasta salad gave off. He happily set down at the table beside of Antauri and scooped several spoonfuls on to his plate.

"Hey Chiro!" Otto said as he set down a basket of rolls on the table, "You ready to eat?"

"You bet!" Chiro cheered. "You're cooking is awesome! How could I not be?" Otto blushed under all the flattery.

"Cooking's just a hobby, making a good meal is like making a new gadget, you just keep working with it till it tastes good!" Otto explained happily. Chiro sat there and thought about why Otto would taste his inventions as the rest of the team entered the room. Nova walked in and happily jumped up beside Chiro.

"Hey Chiro, you're really getting good at defense. I think next practice I'll teach you some offensive moves." She said with a gentle smile, Chiro beamed brightly in return. Sparx jumped up beside Nova and winked coyly. She rolled her eyes at him and returned her attention back to Chiro and their conversation. Sparx face morphed into a sour expression and he crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"What's for dinner Otto?" Gibson inquired as he sat down opposite Nova. He politely took his napkin off of the table and sat it in his lap as he waited for Otto to respond.

"Antauri said he wants us to eat healthier," Otto said as he jumped up beside Gibson and opposite Sparx, "So I made pasta salad, chicken soup with broccoli, and wheat rolls." Antauri nodded with approval at Otto's choice in foods. "Oh, and we're having super duper double chocolate chip ice cream sundaes for desert!" Otto added happily. Antauri's slight smile was replaced with a look of exasperation as everyone dug into the great meal Otto had made.

Just as everyone was enjoying themselves though, the alarm started blaring. As everyone covered their ears and receptors from the loud, headache inducing screech, Otto cheered happily and began clapping.

"Yay! This means my Shugazoom City Alert Monitor is working!" He pushed his chair back and everyone looked at him with expressions ranging from slight amusement to annoyance to serious pain.

"Your what?!" Gibson shouted over the commotion.

"My S.C.A.M!" Otto replied, "Antauri asked me to set it up so we would know when there's trouble in the city. I just got it working today!"

"I did." Antauri said over the blaring noise, "But how do we turn it off?" Otto looked at him in confusion. "Where is the off switch?" Antauri clarified.

"Oh, I didn't make one yet." Otto said simply. Everyone groaned in annoyance.

"Is there anyway to get this thing to shut off?!" Sparx yelled as he pushed his head between his palms. Otto thought about for a moment.

"Destroy the threat?" Otto suggested innocently, apparently he was not effected in the least by the alarm.

"So long as it gets us out of this robot, that's fine with me!" Nova said as she jumped out of her seat. Everyone agreed and walked swiftly to their tubes. They glanced at the map on the main computer screen and noted the location of the threat before they swooped up to the robot's shoulder. As soon as they were out and the door was firmly closed behind them, the blaring quieted to a low buzz.

"Good," Antauri sighed relieved, now that we can think, What is the next suggested course of action?" Everyone turned towards Chiro and he realized they were waiting on him to answer.

"How about we go deal with the threat so the alarm will stop?" Chiro suggested while innocently.

"We?" Gibson repeated with a chuckle, "I hardly think you will go with us on this mission."

"Why not?" Sparx asked slightly offended.

"Yeah," Nova chimed in, "Chiro is skilled enough to come with us now, he won't be in the way."

"But he could be in danger." Antauri said quickly, taking Gibson's side.

"But he needs learn to fight against our enemies." Nova countered. "He can't do that locked up in the robot." The four continued to squabbled while Chiro rolled his eyes and looked at Otto.

"I thought I was suppose to be the leader." He stated to his green companion. Otto nodded in agreement.

"If he is killed before the Skeleton King even comes, who will lead us against him?" Gibson asked angrily.

"If he doesn't know what to expect in battle how can we ever except him to last more than a few minutes in combat?" Nova replied.

"What if someone spots him in the city?" Antauri asked, "Our existence would be compromised."

"How?" Sparx asked with his hands on his hips.

"Because if the City see that we are using Chiro for battle, they will become infuriated with us for putting a young boy in danger." Antauri explained, "Besides, they don't want to see that we are being lead by a child anyways, it will appear that we are weak until they see his skills in battle. Skills I doubt he has acquired yet."

"What if I hid and just watched you?" Chiro suggested, "That way I can see what a real battle looks like and still remain safe." Everyone stopped and thought about it.

"That," Gibson said finally, "could work."

"Great," Chiro said, slightly proud of himself. "How are we going to get over there?"

"Jet packs," Sparx said with a smirk, "Duh." Chiro looked at them.

"I don't have a jet pack." He stated. Otto jumped happily.

"It's okay," Otto said, "I'll give you a lift."

"That doesn't seem entirely safe." Chiro said cautiously as he backed away slowly.

"You'll be fine!" Otto insisted as he activated his jet pack and grabbed Chiro under the arms. The rest of the team activated their own packs..

"Alright Monkey Team," Antauri said, "Let us Mobilize." Everyone launched off the robot's shoulder and Chiro's stomach dropped as he watched the ground beneath him grow farther and farther away. He was suddenly short of breath and seemed to be sweating more than usual.

"You sure this is safe Otto?" He called up to the green monkey.

"Sure, well I mean, I've never actually flown with anyone before, but I'm sure you'll be fine." Otto said cheerfully. Chiro started to get motion sick. He turned a green which matched Otto perfectly and covered his eyes with his hands.

Chiro almost tripped when he was dropped on something unexpectedly. He quickly opened his eyes saw he was dangerously close to the edge of a very high building. He pin wheeled his arms in attempt to stay on the building but his foot slipped and he began to yell out in fright. Out of no where, a claw grabbed him by the back of the shirt and pulled him down on his butt onto the roof of the ten story building. Chiro twisted his head around to see Antauri standing over him.

"Make sure you are unseen." Was the only thing Antauri said to him before turning around and addressing the team. "Alright status report please, Nova." She saluted him before starting.

"Primary observations revile five Formless waiting in the shadows." Nova answered military style, Antauri nodded.

"Wonderful, everyone split up and take one opponent. Chiro, stay here and observe." Antauri dove off the roof with the rest of the team before Chiro had a chance to answer. He ran to the edge of the building and looked down. The team had already descended to the alleyway the Formless were lurking in and had opened fire on them. Chiro watched as they all used their various attacks to defeat the enemies.

Sparx sent a electrified ball straight at a Formless, it exploded on contact. Nova did her favorite attach, Lady Tomahawk to turn her Formless into a pile of goo. Gibson had his usual method of freezing and then disposing of the "Liquid Nuisances". Otto excitably sent his saw swirling into the slimy creature. It dissolved with a sickening plop. Antauri calmly jumped on top of the Formless and phased through it. He lips tilted upwards with the satisfaction of a job well done, and done quietly. They sped back up the side of the building, Antauri still had the slight smile on his lips when they landed in front of Chiro.

"Do you think you can handle something like this when the time comes?" He asked Chiro. Chiro nodded while answering.

"It doesn't seem that hard." Antauri's lips twitched slightly more, Sparx smirked, Nova let a small giggle escape, Otto beamed goofily and even Gibson grinned a bit.

"We just make it seem that way," Antauri said while the smile remained, "But you will have to experience battle at some point. You just need a bit more combat practice."

"I think he could have handled one of those guys his self." Nova protested in good humor.

"Well that might be true, but what will we do if he is seen fighting them?" Gibson said with seriousness back in his voice. "He needs some kind of disguise." The team silently thought about it before Chiro shook his head.

"We'll figure it out later. I have to get home before my Mom does. I'll see you guys later." Chiro called as he headed towards the fire escape on the side for the building that lead to a side street. The team watched as he jumped down the ladder and made sure he got to the street safely before finally turning back towards the robot to recharge.

Chiro walked back slowly through the darkening city. Reds exploded across the skies in a fiery death, but he paid no attention to it as he walked towards his home. Chiro was going to have to get use to the fact that his new friends- no matter how cool they might seem- were basically killing machines. It was also worrying him how quickly he was getting accustomed to this life style. Not just the lying to his mother about were he was every night and weekend, but also how he was learning to fly and fight and how quickly he was beginning to understand the complex battle formations the team made up. For not the first time in the last two weeks, Chiro thought about how surreal the whole situation seemed to him.

He continued to think as he walked into his apartment building and rode up the elevator to the tenth floor. He thought about it as he dug through his back pack and fished out his door key. He only stopped thinking about as the mysterious shadow in his apartment spoke out to him.

"Where have you been Chiro?" It asked coolly from the dark couch just out of the hallway light's reach. Chiro froze in place and caught his breath in his throat. This was bad.

* * *

Cliffhanger!!!! Don't you hate when I do that? Well like I've said before, it's been taking me longer and longer to finish these chapters. Normal writer's block coupled with friends and my quickly approaching graduation that takes a lot of time away from me. All last week I was in the city and had no way to type this chapter.

But, it's done and hopefully it won't be a month till I get the next chapter out. If you guys review, that would make me work faster ! Then you wouldn't be left on the edge of your seat! Well I've got a chapter of _Gidget_ to write now, so later!


	8. Chapter 8

Look who's not dead! Yay! Back and ready to rumble with more action! Now to fix that cliffy that I left the last chapter on...

* * *

Chiro jumped at the voice without thinking and tackled it to the ground. He quickly grabbed it's hands and pinned it to the floor as it wriggled and yelped under his grasp. Nova's training was paying off, it seemed.

"What the _Hell, _Chiro?" The suddenly recognized voice screeched. Chiro swiftly turned the side table light on and it's yellow glow spread over Jennet's face glaring face.

"Jennet?" Chiro asked confused he looked down at her. She continued to struggle under his weight.

"Yes it's me!" She snapped, "Who the heck else did you expect in your apartment when your mother is still at work? Now could you get off me?" Chiro realized how weird it would seem if someone walked by when they were like this. He did not want to explain to Jennet's father why she was pinned to the ground under him. He blushed as he quickly jumped up and helped her up.

"How did you get in here?" Chiro asked as he walked to the door and closed while simultaneously turning on the light. Jennet rolled her eyes and sat down on the couch.

"My father owns the building, do you think I couldn't get a master key if I wanted one?" She leaned back and fixed her hair with a huff.

"Why were you in the dark?" Chiro asked as he threw his backpack on to the coffee table and sat down beside her. Jennet sighed again, but this time it was sad, not exasperated.

"Because if your mom walked in before you did I wanted to be able to dive behind the couch and hide. If you tackled me to the ground, how do you think your mother would react to me suddenly appearing in your apartment?" Jennet sighed and crossed her arms in front of her chest. "She really doesn't like me, ya know."

"That's ridiculous!" Chiro insisted, "What would give you that idea?" She rolled her eyes at him but smiled. "What? I don't get it."

"Why do you think?" She asked him. He continued to look at her confused and she just shook her head. "Sometimes Chiro, you are just so oblivious. Well it's my turn to ask questions, Where did you bolt off to after school?" Chiro started to lie but she held up her hand, "And don't say the grocery story, or the arcade, or the comic book store, or Gatslapper's I checked all of those and asked if you had came in today. All said no, so where the heck were you?"

Chiro was caught in the middle of his web of lies with no way to get out. He looked at her determined faced and smiled. This is why he liked her, she was persistent, smart and clever. But he couldn't tell her the truth, he had promised the team he wouldn't. He bit his lip and sighed at the mess he had gotten himself in.

"Jennet look, I want to tell you where I've been going the last few weeks, I really do. But I can't." He finally managed to say. She looked at him skeptically and Chiro continued, using his hands for emphasis. "First off, you wouldn't believe me even if I told you where I've been going. Second, you would think I was going crazy and third, I think you would be scared to learn what I've been doing." _That and you would be terrified of me. _Jennet stared at him for a long time. Her arms crossed in front of her chest and her brows knitted together.

"Look," Chiro finished "I just need you to trust me and not ask so many questions for awhile. I will tell you when the time comes, but I need you to give me time before I can tell you, okay?"

"Alright." Jennet finally said with a huff, "I'll quit asking questions for now, but you have to tell me what's going on eventually, alright?" Chiro smiled widely and hugged Jennet.

"Yes! That's fine, no that's great! Thank you so much for understanding." She looked shocked at Chiro's sudden show of affection but decided not to complain. He finally let her go and smiled at her.

"Alright then, I have to go back to my apartment now." Jennet said as she stood up and dusted off her jeans. "My parents are going to be wondering where I am." Chiro jumped up walked her to the door.

"And thanks again for understanding Jennet." Chiro said with a grateful smile. She rolled her eyes and pinched his cheek playfully.

"You're so cute when you're pleading." She said with a smirk as Chiro open the door and quickly glanced around making sure the coast was clear as he motioned Jennet out of his apartment. As she passed Chiro grinned deviously as he playfully grabbed the back of her shirt.

"Hold on a minute, you owe me for scaring the crap out of me." Chiro said still grinning. She raised her eyebrow and placed her hands on her hips.

"Oh yeah, and what is it that I owe you?" She asked as Chiro grinned wider.

"A date." He answered with a smirk. She dropped her smile and replaced it with a stunned look. Chiro smiled at her reaction but continued. "Yup, you owe me a date. And since we're off school Monday we can go Sunday night, how does that sound?" She composed herself quickly and grinned.

"Alright, that sounds…nice. How about Gatslapper's?" She asked with a grin.

"Alright then, it's a date." Chiro said as she left. She waved to him as she hopped on the elevator and the doors closed behind her. Chiro smiled to himself at a crisis avoided and quickly closed and locked the door behind him.

His mother came in a bit later, she discovered her son fast asleep on the couch with the dim glow of the TV for company. She smiled to herself as she walked over and gently pulled a blanket over his sleeping form. It was Friday night, why wake him up? She turned off the TV and ruffled his hair as she gave him a quick peck on the forehead. She then thought about what a good son she had as she entered her own bedroom and got ready for bed.

* * *

_Screams of pain and horror echo through out the cold, dead city. Everyone is crying, morning the lost of their protectors and their love ones. The ones who are well enough to work, toil away at the statue being built in honor of his Maliciousness. They cry as they work their fingers to blood pulps all for Him. But one boy suddenly stands tall and adamant. "We will work no more!" The young boy yells to the dark cloaked figure on his throne. The figure laughs coolly, goose bumps are sent down the boy's spine in battalions. _

"_Foolish boy, why do you stand up to me? You have no power, you are but an ant on my finger. Do you really believe that _you _can stop _me_? Haha, stupid child." He grinned evilly, "You are nothing, you have nothing and you will remain nothing as you watch your dear city crumble around you." The young boy wavered at the figure's speech. His knees gave out from under him and he collapsed to the ground. The mass of slaves around him began to surge on him as he was smothered under their weight and chains._

"_Noooo!" The boy screamed as the dark figure laughed maliciously and watched the young boy drown in his own over-confidence. "Noooo!" His yells echoed as he fought against the weight of so many people. "No-"_

"Oooo!" Chiro yelled as he rolled off the couch and landed on the floor hard. He shot up, still tangled in the blanket his mother had placed on him last night, and struggled to free himself from the fuzzy prison. He blinked twice once he realized where he was and gave a heavy sigh of relief as he untangled himself. Him mother stuck her head around the kitchen doorframe, slightly dumbfounded as he son stood up and kicked the blanket from his feet.

"Something wrong dear?" She asked as she continued to cook the bacon in the pan. "It sounded like you just had a nightmare."

"Naw," Chiro assured her, "I'm fine. Just surprised myself that's all." He sat down at the table as his mother walked over and put the bacon on his plate.

"Really?" She asked him skeptically, "Chiro you forget that I'm your mother and I can tell when something's wrong." She sat down across from him and brought her mug of coffee to her lips as she looked at him. "You sure you don't want to talk about it?"

Chiro felt terrible for lying to her all the other times, so it couldn't hurt to talk to her this once, right? Besides, he didn't even get the dream himself. "Okay then, well it was really weird and it didn't make sense to me. You sure you still want to hear it?"

She smiled broadly at him, "Lay it on me." Chiro took a deep breath before continuing.

"Okay well, I was in the city but it wasn't really the city. It was a lot duller and stuffier, anyways I was in the city and me and a bunch of other people were basically slaves to this really weird cloaked guy-" Chiro noticed his mother's eyebrows shot up then and he stopped. "Something wrong Mom?"

She shook her head, "No, but could you tell me what did the man look like?" She asked.

"I'm not sure. He was surrounded by shadows and darkness but he was wearing a dark, ragged cloak, why?" He asked confused.

"Don't worry about it." She said with a hand wave, "Please continue."

"Oh, okay well so we were slaves, right? And I was sick and tired of it so I stood up to him and told him we weren't going to take it any more. But then he just laughed at me and everyone started to swarm me and that's when I woke up." Chiro finished with a large breath. His mother tapped her finger on her mug as she thought for a moment. Finally she looked up and stared Chiro in the eyes.

"Honey, did I ever tell you about Skeleton King?" She asked calmly as Chiro gasped. _No one_ used his name out loud. It was considered taboo to speak it, and Chiro's mother had been no exception until now.

"N-no." He answered shakily. She nodded in response as she looked out the window.

"That's what I thought. Some parents like to use him as a threat when their children misbehave, but me and your father never did. We hated the idea of using fear to control your behavior. Any ways the reason I ask this is because that's the way I've always heard him described to me by anyone I've ever asked." Chiro's jaw dropped.

"Really? Wait, why were you asking people about him?" Chiro asked. She simple shrugged.

"When I was younger history fascinated me, I wanted to learn everything I could about our planet. Both good and bad, and it took awhile but finally people started talking to me about what it was like when Skeleton King was still around." She answered.

"You found people who where around when Skeleton King was?" Chiro asked amazed as his mother smiled and shook her head.

"No but I heard about it from their children who had been scared to death of him by the descriptions their parents told. It worries me that you are having dream about him though Chiro." She sighed and looked into her mug. Suddenly she looked up and smiled brightly, "Ah well, I'm sure it's nothing. You probably just got the spooks from hearing everyone freak out about the Hyper Force coming back, eh?. Hey isn't it Saturday, don't you have something planned with Glenny and B.T.?" She asked happily as she stood up.

"Nothing in particular." Chiro answered as he got up, "But I'll probably hang out with them in a little while."

"Okay then," His mother answered, "You can go get ready while I clean up in here." She swiftly picked up the breakfast dishes and swept them into the kitchen as Chiro stood there confused.

"Mom?" He asked finally, "How do you feel about the Hyper Force being back?" He had never heard her say anything about it he realized. She stopped what she was doing as she turned back to him with a determined look on her face.

"I'm not sure yet, if things continue the way they are then maybe it mean they are just here to help clean up the city from crime. But if your dreams…"She stopped what she was going to say and shook her head, "All I know is that if something does happen, I sure am glad knowing that they are so close encase something happens. Why do you want to know?"

"Mom," Chiro said with a sigh, "I want you to know that I'm the new leader of the Hyper Force and I'm going to try and stop Skeleton King from taking over the city. And I'm learning how to kill these really weird creatures called Formless. Oh and me and Jennet are kind of going out now."

"Oh okay then honey, that's fine with me." His mother answered with a smile. "That's great I always did like her. Oh you should invite the Hyper Force for dinner sometime. And here you can take this whole chocolate cake with you next time you see them." She handed the large cake in her hands to her son and pushed him towards his room. "Now off you go to fight crime and be a super hero."

"Wow, thanks mom!" Chiro said happily as he smiled back at her. "This went a lot better than expected!"

Chiro shook his head to clear it of the daydream as his mother asked. "Why did you want to know?" She smiled at him.

"Oh," Chiro said as he walked to his room backwards. "Just wondering." He turned and walked into his room and closed the door behind him, letting out a sigh of relief. Maybe it wouldn't go like that when he told her that he was a member of the Hyper Force but a kid could dream, right? He quickly changed out of his clothes from the day before and threw on his only clean pair of clothes, his school uniform. As he left his room and walked out the door he called to his mom, "Bye Mom! I'm going to go hang out with B.T. and Glenny, see you later tonight!"

"Kay hon, be back before dinner! Love you!" She called as she finished cleaning up the kitchen. He closed the door behind him and hopped over to the elevator and jumped on. As he was leaving his building he heard a couple of familiar voices calling to him.

"Hey Chiro!" B.T. yelled as he walked towards him with Glenny close behind. "Sup buddy? Where you've been the last couple of weekends?"

"Yeah," Glenny added as he trudged up beside Chiro, "It feels like we haven't gotten to hang out as just us guys in forever."

"Well let's go do something right now!" Chiro said happily. "I'm not doing anything right now so let's go." Glenny and B.T. looked at each other.

"All right, but what are we going to do?" B.T. asked, while shoving his hands in his pockets. "I would prefer to do something free, considering my mom has put me on allowance probation until I pull my grades up."

"So that kicks out movies, the arcade or laser tag." Chiro though for a second, "Well we could always go to the park and hang out."

Glenny grumbled, "But that's so boring! What are we even going to do there?" Chiro shrugged and started walking that way anyways.

"Unless you come up with a better idea it's at least a time waster. Come on guys, let's head out already." And with that Chiro turned around headed to the park. Glenny and B.T. exchanged a glance before jogging to catch up with Chiro.

"Well you're in a good mood." B.T. commented as he strolled up beside him. "What's going on?"

"Yeah, you've been acting this way for the past couple of days." Glenny chimed in. Chiro shrugged again with a smile on his face.

"It just seems like everything has been going my way for the past couple of days." Chiro answered as he shoved his hands into his pockets. "What, a guy can't be happy every once in a while?" B.T. playfully choke-held Chiro around the neck..

"Not if we can help it." He said as he ruffled Chiro's hair with his fist. "It's our job to make sure everyone is miserable." Glenny nodded for emphasis as Chiro laughed.

"I thought you guys got over this behavior, oh I don't know, when we were ten?" Chiro pushed B.T.'s arm up and slipped out of the hold. "Besides, that move didn't work on me when we were kids, it's not going to work now." B.T. shrugged.

"You never know when we could just slip back into that bully stage we went through ya' know." he said menacingly with a smirk.

"Yup," Glenny add playfully "We could totally rule the school again if we decided we wanted to start bulling again." All three of them broke out into laughter at that.

"Not if I'm here to stop it." Chiro said with a smile, "After all I am a super hero." B.T. and Glenny doubled over in laughter.

"Yeah what ever you say Chiro." B.T. said as he waved the tears away. "Come on let's go." Chiro smirked to himself as he watched his two best friends walk ahead of him. They had no idea how serious he was, but they never took him seriously. They never had actually…

* * *

Chiro and his mother had tried for years to stay in the old apartment after his father's death. But finally the rent had gotten to much for the single mother to handle and she had to move into the rent-free apartment that was being offered to them by the father of the young girl that his father had saved. But is also meant that Chiro had to switch schools.

The young now ten-year old stood outside the gates of Shugazoom elementary looking up at the big, scary building. He took a deep breath and stepped through the gates and into a playground of screaming children. He gulped as a small group ran up to him.

"Hi! Who are you? Are you new? Where do you live? What grade are you in?" They assaulted him with questions which he answered easily. Soon he was playing and laughing with them just like they had been friends forever. That is until the Terrible Three strolled by. A foot shot out in front of Chiro just as he ran by and he fell face first into the dirt. He picked himself up and turned over to face the kids. One was a tall red head, another was a rounding, short boy, but it was the girl that caught his eye.

She stood tall for her whole three feet. Her hair was pulled into two high blue ponytails tied with green bows. She wore a pink dress with black shoes that had a scuff across them. There was something familiar about her too…

"Watch where you're going." She said lazily as she took her red sucker out of her mouth. "You scuffed my new shoes." At this point an average kid would have backed off with a quick sorry, but Chiro was never average.

"Hey you tripped me!" He said to the shock of everyone on the playground. The girl stared at him wide eye as her two friends rushed in front of her.

"Hey you can't talk to Jennet like that!" The tall boy barked as the shorter one agreed in unison. They rushed Chiro with fists upheld and he did the only thing he could think of. He grabbed the taller boy's fist and used it to help him slid in between his legs. As the tall boy and the rounder one stumbled in surprise, he jumped up and kicked the round one square in the butt. The boy lost his balance and landed on the taller boy, pinning him under his greater weight. The playground was shocked into silence, no one had ever stood up the Terrible Three before. Chiro turned to the girl and recognized her finally.

"Hey I know you!" Chiro said loudly, "You're that girl that my dad saved from the fire. I live in your building now."

"S-so?" The girl finally managed to stutter out. "What's it to you?" Her two goons started to get up and Chiro's eyes narrowed at her.

"My dad died saving you." He said plainly. "I don't really think you should waste this second life by being a bully, not everyone get second chances." The whole playground gasped at his boldness. She dropped her sucker in surprise as Chiro turned away from her and straight into the two bullies.

"Oh you are so going to get it now runt." The taller boy hissed as he pulled his arm back. The move took Chiro by surprised and the punch connected perfectly with his nose. "I'm B.T. and that's Glenny." The bully introduced himself, "I can tell we're going to have a ton of fun this year, welcome to school new kid." Chiro grabbed his nose and doubled over on the ground as a yell cut through the commotion.

"Stop!" Jennet yelled before Glenny or B.T. could make another move. She ran over to Chiro and bent down beside him. "No one has ever stood up to me before. You're either really, really stupid or really, really brave. How would you like to join our little group?" Chiro listened as he held his sleeve to his nose. "We could rule this school if you joined us."

"But Jennet-!" Glenny whined as she cut him off with a simple glare. He quickly shut up as she turned to again Chiro with a smile.

"What do you say? You want to join us?" She asked with a sweet smile. Chiro looked at her and stood up before answering.

"No thanks." He said stuffily, "Not if you're going to be bullies anyways." Everyone gasped collectively. No one stood up to the Terrible Three, but no one I mean no one said no to Jennet. He turned and walked away as the entire playground stared at him with mixed expressions of wonder, hate, and hope. Jennet sat there a moment before clinching her fist and jumping up.

"What if we weren't bullies anymore?" She yelled at him. Everyone including Chiro turned and started at her in shock. "It's no fun scaring everyone one." She ran up to Chiro and grabbed the arm that wasn't holding his nose. "I would much rather have everyone like me than be afraid of me and Glenny and B.T. Come on, I'll walk you to the nurse's office." She motioned for B.T. and Glenny to follow her as she lead a befuddled Chiro to the front door of the school.

She pulled him in with a smile as she chattered on and on about how good of friends they would be if he just told the nurse he had ran into a door….

* * *

"Earth to Chiro!" Glenny and B.T. yelled in unison at the daydreaming boy. "Wake up!"

"What?" He asked confused as he turned to the two boys who rolled their eyes.

"Geez dude," B.T. said with a grin, "You zoned out on us for a minute."

"What were you thinking about?" Glenny asked.

"Oh I was just remembering the 'good ole days', that's all." Chiro said with a smile.

"Well you really need to stop doing that." B.T. said as he crossed his arms, "It really weird and if you become labeled as a freak we can't hang out with you any more. Now come on, let's go." The tall boy turned and ran toward the park with Glenny close on his heels. Chiro smiled and chased after the boys with a smile on his face.

* * *

Alright, rant time~! Before everyone freaks out cause I've been gone so long, just hold your ponies for a moment, I have a good explanation.

First off, I had a summer program at my college that was 2 weeks long and that I had to attend to the some college credits. Then I spent sometime with my friends that I hadn't seen for two weeks. Then I had a terrible case of writer's block that I had to over come, but I've done it.

Okay so now you know the story, I've finally gotten back into the swing of things now and hopefully I'll be getting new chapters out of everything. So until next time faithful readers, Tah tah~!


	9. Chapter 9

_Hand busts through the cold, dead ground. Slowly, a body lifts itself out of the grave and moans quietly. As she dusts herself off, Ren sighs and cracks her neck back into place, grabs her laptop and starts typing more chapters of her fanfics._

Hey look who's back, explanation at the end of this chapter.

* * *

The sun shined through the pale green curtains and fell gently on purple and pink comforter. The bed had already been neatly made by the maid as the young mistress was in the shower. As she stepped out of the steamy bathroom with the sun shining brightly, she smiled as she walked towards her closet, and dropped her wet towel on the ground for the maid to pick up on her second run through the room. The girl strolled slowly to the closet, letting the sun warm her pale skin. She finally reached her destination and pulled the double doors open to reveal her rather large, walk-in wardrobe. On one side was her collection of identical plaid skirts and sweater vests for school. On the other however, was full of clothes of all shapes and styles.

She smiled as she pulled a dress from the rack and she walked towards the mirrors at the end of her huge closet. She laid the dress against her skin and turned this way to view the dress from different angles. It was a plain blue, strapless dress with beads decorating the bodice. She frowned as she threw it to the side and walked back towards the rest of her "normal" clothes muttering. "To fancy." Next she came back with a skirt and tight shirt that hugged her curves. She smiled to herself until she realized that the shirt might suggest too much and threw to the ground, making the pile of rejected clothes grow.

She repeated this process several times with many different outfits. Finally she stood in front of her mirror wearing dark jeans, a green tank top, pale orange tennis shoes and a small smile.

"Perfect for a date." Jennet said as she pulled her hair back into a low pony tail. She did a quick twirl in the mirror before she was really satisfied and quickly walked out of the closet, making a note to herself to tell the maid to pick up in there.

.::~:~::.

Darkness enveloped him. It seemed to suck the very life from his body, but in reality it calmed him. The darkness was not to be feared, in fact it should be embraced. Wasn't that one of first things the Vernon Mystics taught him? Antauri felt calm when ever the darkness of meditation came over him, a more sentimental person would have described it as a blanket almost. It was comforting, calming, and almost warm.

So when the horrid chill ran up his spine he knew something was wrong immediately. The darkness was replaced by something else, something wrong. It didn't feel like darkness, even in the dark you still know there is a coffee table somewhere hiding, only by using your shin can you find it, but you still know it is there. No this was a void, a vile void filled with nothing. Antauri squirmed a moment but stayed put, he had to see this. This is what he had been looking for after all.

The void surrounded him and almost seemed to suffocate him. Then it was suffocating him, like the warm blanket had turned on him. Just when it seemed like he couldn't last a second more, the void was split open and filled with a horrible, eerie purple light. No, light wasn't the right word, it felt more like being attacked to something akin to mold. It felt fuzzy, and alive, and _wrong_. Antauri wished for the void to come back if only it would let him escape the feeling of being surrounded by the purple fungus. Then a dark figure was standing in front of him, and this was 100 times worse than the purple light.

The figure was covered by a black hood, but Antauri didn't need to see his face to know who it was. He remained calm as the figure began speaking.

"Our previous attempts to secure the boy have failed." The figure growled, "We will have to continue on with the plan without him in our clutches." Antauri felt a pang of anger at this remark but quickly subdued the desire to attack the figure. "My spies assure me that he is new and weak anyways, I doubt he will offer much of a threat when the time to attack comes."

"Soon it will be time to move," The figure continued to an unseen audience. The figures voice could best be described as maggots crawling over a rotten apple, munching endlessly. "The city has had peace for far too long. We will strike soon, in fact I was planning on-" the figure suddenly stopped talking, Antauri knew he had been discovered.

He fought to break the meditation, it was like kicking to the surface of the water after being at the bottom of a lake. The figure turned and reached his claws towards him and the black monkey fought harder. The closer he got to the surface, the faster he went, but the hand matched his speed, then got faster. He could see the light just above the surface and just as he was about to break through, the hand grabbed him and pulled him back down. He struggled against the ice cold grip, knowing that it was useless but fighting anyways. Then he wasn't struggling, but instead was being shook harshly.

"Antauri, Antauri!" a muffled voice said frantically. The claw released Antauri and cringed away from the voice and Antauri took this opportunity. He rocketed towards the surface breaking through into the light and-

The black monkey opened his eyes to see Sparx's confused and slightly worried face over his. The red simian smiled and sighed in relief when he saw Antauri open his eyes. He was laying on his side on the floor, which was odd considering Antauri remember levitating before he completely passed into the meditation realm.

"Man you had me worried there for a minute," Sparx said with a smile. "I was about to go get brain-strain to check on ya. I though you were dead or something when you didn't respond to my voice." Sparx laughed as he leaned back to allow Antauri to sit up. Antauri rubbed his head, it was sore from where it no doubt smashed into the floor.

"Well while I appreciate your concern Sparx," Antauri asked calmly. "What were you doing in here?" Sparx's good-natured grin dropped from his face as his inky black eyes locked with Antauri's lime green ones.

"You can't fool me Antauri," He said seriously. "I might not be a smart as Gibson or as clever as Otto, but I can tell when something is just plain wrong. You've been acting strangely ever since we saved The Kid and his classmates from that Formless on the bus." He sat cross-legged on the floor with his palms on his knees and his face serious. Antauri stared stoically back and waited for him to continue. "Something big is going down and you're hiding it from the team for whatever reason you want to, probably because you want to protect us or something." Antauri started to protest but Sparx stopped him. "Like I say, I might not be the brightest monkey in the robot, but I'm not completely stupid. So come on, cough it up, what's the problem." Antauri considered insisting that nothing was amiss, but quickly dismiss that idea. Sparx was right, he was far from stupid. The second in command readjusted himself before speaking.

"Skeleton King is returning." He said calmly and surly. Sparx blinked a moment and shrugged his shoulders.

"Well yeah, I assumed Tall, Evil, and Ugly would rear his ugly face again eventually." the red monkey said while rubbing the back of his head. "I don't get what the big deal is."

"The 'big deal' is," Antauri answered calmly, "Is that I feel that you and Nova were right in insisting Chiro start his training soon." Sparx smirked at this and began to gloat when Antauri swiftly lifted his hand to silent him, there was no time for smart remarks. "We will have to work twice as hard and twice as fast now to make sure he is ready to fight. This include making sure the robot is in working order, we will all have to work 'overtime' to insure this."

"So basically," Sparx said, "You're telling me we have a really short amount of time to prepare to fight one of the worse bad guys the universe has ever seen? How much time are we talking here, a couple months?" Antauri sighed a moment then answered with a shake of his head.

"Not even that much," He answered truthfully, "A few weeks at most." Sparx whistled through his teeth and looked at the ceiling while rubbing his chin.

"That doesn't leave us a lot of down time, that's for sure." He answered thoughtfully. Antauri had to suppressed a small smile. Sparx might not be the smartest or cleverest or strongest of the team, but he more than made up for it in heart. If Antauri had gone to Gibson or Nova about this, he would have been met with doubt and annoyance, Sparx displayed something entirely different, faith. He didn't question what they had to do, he just knew they had to do it. It was this simplistic hope that Antauri found so intriguing and important about Sparx. He simply accepted the problem and wanted to know how he could solve it. He looked back down at Antauri and continued. "So we need the kid here now, right?" Antauri nodded again and Sparx closed his eyes and stood up as a response. "Okay, I'll get the Kid while you fill the team in on the situation."

He started to leave and then stopped and turned back towards Antauri as he reached the door. "Ya know, the Kid won't be every happy about the time frame." Antauri nodded in agreement again.

"I am aware of this, but there is not much we can to about it. This is all part of the pressure of being a leader." Antauri answered stoically. Sparx shook his head with a small smile.

"I don't think he'll get mad about the pressure," Sparx said. "I think he'll be more mad about the fact that we are taking time away from his new girlfriend and he can't even tell her why." And with that Sparx left the Second-in-Command and went to retrieve Chiro. Antauri sat there a few moments more, meditating on what he would say to the rest of the team before leaving to explain the situation.

.::~:~::.

Sparx landed on the same rooftop that he and Nova had staked out their first night back. It was mid-day, but Chiro was sitting happily on the couch eating cereal straight from the box and watching T.V. while still in his pajamas. Sparx smiled as he took that as a sign that his mother was not home to demand he get dressed immediately. Sparx glanced around to make sure there was no one lurking around before he activated his jet pack and flew over to the window. He quickly rapped on the window, draw Chiro's face and shock towards it. He quickly jumped up and pushed the large window open and waved Sparx in while he quickly asked.

"Sparx? What are you doing here? Is something wrong with the team? And why did you have to come in through the window?" Chiro asked as he closed the window behind his red simian friend. Sparx chuckled as he flopped on the couch.

"Cool your jets Kid! Everything is fine with the team (sorta), and Antauri sent me to get you for training. And how else am I suppose to get in? It's not like I can just waltz through the lobby and up the elevator." Sparx said with a smile. Chiro thought about that for a moment before continuing.

"Well what if my Mom had been here? What in the world could I have told her to explain the appearance of a Hyper Force member?" Chiro asked quickly.

"I don't know, tell her I'm a remote controlled toy or something?" Sparx said with a shrugged, "I don't know and that's not really the point anyways, you need to get dressed and come to the robot ASAP."

"Okay, okay." Chiro said as he walked towards his room. "Why are you in such a hurry anyways?" Sparx bit his lip and sighed.

"Cause Skeleton King is coming, and soon." Sparx finally answered. Chiro stopped in his tracks and turned on his heel and faced Sparx again.

"He's what? When? How long do we have?" Chiro asked frantically. Sparx sighed again and rubbed the back of his head.

"Antauri answers a few weeks, and that's just a conservative estimate." Sparx said truthfully. Chiro sighed heavily and walked back to his room.

"Alright then, I'll take it that this means we'll be working overtime now?" The young teen asked down-heartedly. Sparx nodded as he sat on the couch and began flipping channels.

"Yup, you just hit the hammer on the nail Kid." The monkey said as he leaned back on the couch. "Don't expect to get much rest in the next few days." Chiro sighed and retired to his room to change.

When he walked out of his bedroom he was dressed in blue jeans, an orange tee shirt and black sneakers. He had his hands shoved in his pocket. He looked to Sparx and sighed heavily. "Ya ready to go?" He asked the red monkey.

Sparx nodded as he turned the T.V. off and hopped of the couch. He had been enjoying a movie about a space hero temporarily-turned-evil who was being saved by the beautiful but strong princess, but quickly turned it off, deciding it was too unrealistic.

"Yup Kid. If I give you a lift back to the robot, we can get back quicker." The red monkey said while hooking a thumb over his shoulder. Chiro thought of his experience with Otto flying him around and gulped.

"Um, I'm not sure how I feel about that plan…" The young hero hesitated.

"Aw come on Kid, we'll be able to get done faster if I just fly ya back." Sparx insisted. Chiro rubbed the side of his face and sighed.

"Fine, fine." He finally agreed. "I have a date tonight and the quicker we get done, the better." Sparx grinned at the mention of "Date" just as Chiro knew he would and the boy couldn't help but smile.

"A date?" Sparx asked incredibly. "Let me guess, with the lovely Jennet who we have only met in passing?" Chiro nodded with a smile on his face as Sparx laughed and cheered.

"Alright Kid!" Sparx exclaimed as he patted Chiro on the back. "Well let's get moving Kid! I would hate for you to miss your date, and I can bet your date would hate to be missed." He walked towards the window and motioned for Chiro to follow him. He stood up on the window sill and turned on his jet pack and held his arms open for Chiro. The boy took a deep breath and closed his eyes as the red monkey grabbed under his arms and lifted him from the window, pausing to give Chiro enough time to shut the window.

.::~:~::.

Once again as Chiro entered the robot he was greeted by a green blur attacking his stomach. Otto looked up and smiled at Chiro happily.

"Hey Chiro!" Otto said happily as he hung off the leader. "I got a present for you!" Chiro smiled as he pried Otto off of him.

"Okay, what is it?" Chiro asked as Otto jumped up and slapped him on the left side of his chest. When his palm fell off, a small yellow disk remained stuck to Chiro's shirt. He tilted his head and looked at the odd device. "Um, thanks Otto?" Chiro said unsurely.

"You don't have a clue what it is, huh?" Otto asked with a big goofy grin on his face. Chiro nodded as he looked closely at it. Upon closer inspection Chiro realized that there was an odd, almost face like emblem on the disk and an antenna coming off the top.

"That's great!" Otto suddenly cheered. "It means no other humans will be able to either!" Chiro looked confused to Otto, still not getting what the disk was suppose to be. Otto laughed hardily and smiled. "Smack with you right hand, like this." Otto demonstrated using his right hand to slap the upper left part of his chest, right above where Chiro's heart was. Chiro still looked confused as he slapped his chest like he was instructed and was immediately enveloped in a blinding white light. He screamed in surprise as he was momentarily blinded and Otto cheered again.

"All right it worked!" Otto yelled happily and started clapping.

"What worked?" Chiro said as he rubbed his eyes, trying to regain his vision. Otto's cool metal hand grabbed his and pulled the blind boy forward.

"That worked!" Otto said as he pointed towards the computer monitor and Chiro looked up. He was suddenly wearing a white jacket over white pants, orange gloves, dark gray boots and a white and orange mask. His hair also seemed different, spiked every which way with his bangs hanging more in his face than his mother would ever allow, and an orange scarf was wrapped around his neck.

"What in the world…" As all he could manage to say in his shock. Otto laughed again.

"Well ya know how Antauri and Gibson were saying that you couldn't revile that you were a Shugazoomian yet? But Sparx and Nova wanted you to get practice fighting real Formless? Well I came up with a happy medium." Otto said proudly as he motioned to the outfit Chiro was wearing. "This way your identity can remain a secret while you fight with us. You're a real super hero now!" Otto said excitably as Chiro turned this way and that in the make shift mirror. "It also doubles as your communicator so you can talk to the team."

"It's amazing Otto! How did you do it?" Chiro asked in awe.

"Aw you know," Otto said shyly, "It just involved slightly changing the molecular structure of your clothes and using them in an more opportune way to hide your identity. That's what the little disk is for anyways." Chiro looked at him in shock.

"You can do that?" He asked amazed, Otto nodded happily.

"Yup, hopefully the structure will hold and your clothes won't all disappear!" Otto added with a large grin on his face. And with that, the green monkey skipped away happily as Chiro tried to decide if he was joking or not. Gibson soon walked towards Chiro and looked him up and down before nodding.

"Yes I believe this will do quite nicely." The blue scientist commented. "I hope you are ready for your first real battle." Chiro nodded excitably.

"You bet I am! I can't wait to kick some Formless butt!" Chiro cheered as Gibson smirked. Nova soon came it with Antauri close in tow. The black mentor made his way towards the young boy and sighed. He had to warn him about Skeleton King's spies and see if Chiro knew any one who could be one.

"Chiro I believe there is something of up most importance that I need to address with you-" Antauri started when he was interrupted by the blaring alarm. Luckily Otto had lowered the volume of the alarm so it was only ear splitting and not ear drum busting. Everyone grabbed their audio receptors and ears, cringing still though. Antauri looked to Chiro and sighed. _I'll tell you later. _Antauri sent to Chiro as everyone once again hurried to the shoulder of the robot. Once outside everyone sighed and sent a glare to Otto.

"Next thing you build," Nova warned, "Better be an off button for that alarm."

"Okay!" Otto answered obliviously. "The computer said this threat was over in section 13 by the way." Everyone nodded in response and Nova moved to pick Chiro up.

"I'll get Chiro this time." The yellow monkey stated as she grabbed the boy by his underarms. "And I can't wait till he shows you all what he can do against those Formless." She said with pride. Chiro half turned to her and smiled as they lifted off the robot and headed towards downtown. This time they landed around the corner from the threat and peeked around. There were six Formless currently planning an attack on the unsuspecting pedestrians that obliviously walked by.

"One for each of us." Chiro stated. "And they're really close the street this time, I don't know if we'll be able to fight them without the citizens noticing." Everyone turned to him and stared. After a moment Chiro realized that they were waiting on him to give them the order to strike. "Um okay, number one priority is keeping the civilians safe. Defeat the Formless and make sure they don't hurt the humans. Um, Monkeys Mobilize?"

With the order, the team jumped into action at a surprising speed. Chiro crouched in shock a moment before rounding the corner and setting his sites on the only Formless not being flanked by a monkey. He closed his eyes a moment and took a deep breath as he ran toward the it.

Meanwhile the rest of the team was fighting their own monsters. Nova punched her Formless into the wall with a grunt and it exploded in a gross print on the bricks. Gibson froze his and then used his drill to shatter it to pieces. Antauri fazed through the minion and landed safely on the ground as the Formless disintegrated.

Otto broke the silence with a doom thrower and Sparx used his magnets to shock his victim. The pedestrians finally looked down the alley and began running and screaming in fear. Chiro dashed towards his foe and jumped in the air as he screamed "Lighting Kick!" His boots were enveloped in buzzing electricity as he kicked the Formless square in the chest and it disappeared. A few citizens had stopped and stared in awe at the young boy who had just defeated a Formless. The monkeys looked to each other with worry, the cat was out of the bag now. They were so worried about the humans in fact, that they didn't see they Formless hiding behind the dumpster jump at them.

"Team watch out!" Chiro yelled as he jumped over them and pulled his arm back, and launched a bolt of electricity at it. The monkeys ducked as the Formless was struck with the bolt and exploded all over them.

"Uck!" Nova said as she whipped the goo off of herself. Sparx stood up and grinned at Chiro.

"When did you learn that move kid?" He asked excitably. Chiro started to answer that he didn't have a clue, but Antauri quickly interrupted him.

"Team, let us go. Now." Antauri said as he activated his jet pack and picked Chiro up. The team silently followed as the few citizens standing around mumbled to each other.

"Did you see that? Was that a human fighting with the Hyper Force just now?"

"I think it was! Oh man, what could this mean?"

"Why do they need a human helping them anyways?"

"How do we know that was even a human? It could have been an alien for all we know!"

.::~:~::.

The Hyper Force landed on the robot's shoulder once again and turned to face each other. They all stood in silence a moment, looking to Chiro to speak first. The young leader tried not to squirm under the stares as he calmly said.

"Well that went well, I think." He said hopefully.

"Well?" Antauri answered with his arms crossed in front of his chest and a calm look on his face. "Don't think it went well." he said calmly. Chiro's face fell as Antauri's broke into a small grin. "I think it went wonderfully, we defeated the Formless and kept the citizens safe. Also, your quick action saved us Chiro." His grin widened a bit more as he said, "Good job." Chiro smiled happily as the rest of the team jumped to congratulate and praise him.

"That was awesome Chiro!" Otto said happily as he hopped around the leader.

"Way to show those Formless what you're made of!" Nova said happily as she clapped him on the back, causing him to stumble.

"That was pretty cool, Kid." Sparx said with a grin. As they happily chattered, Gibson calmly walked up beside Antauri and quietly stated:

"It wasn't that big of a deal. We weren't in any extreme danger when that seventh Formless appeared, there was no need to make such a big deal out of it." the scientist said.

"I realize that Gibson," Antauri said calmly and equally quietly, "But Chiro needs positive reinforcement right now, the more we praise and encourage him, the more confident he will get. We need to show the City that our new leader is calm and believes that we can defeat Skeleton King, so they will believe we can too." Gibson nodded slowly.

"Alright I'll trust your judgment, Antauri." Gibson finally said.

"And Gibson?" Antauri asked the blue monkey, "You could at least act like you enjoy Chiro's company, he needs to know that his entire team is behind him." Gibson blushed and turned away.

"Well sorry if I don't jump up and down every time he enters the robot like Otto." Gibson said simply, "I don't express affection that way."

Antauri chuckled, "I realize that, but completely ignoring him is not the way to treat him either. Please open up a bit more." Gibson nodded and slowly walked over to Chiro and held his hand out.

"Good job, Chiro." He said as the two shook hands. "That was very quick assessment and action on your part, very impressive." Chiro tried not to gasp as he smiled.

"Aw I was just trying to protect you guys, you're my friends and I always protect my friends." Chiro said happily as the team got eerily quiet. Finally Otto broke the silence.

"Do you really feel that way Chiro?" he asked quietly. Chiro tilted his head to the side.

"Well yeah, you guys have taken me in like a second family. Why wouldn't I try to protect you?" Chiro said simply as the rest of the team smiled and shook their heads.

"No it's okay, Kid." Sparx said with a grin, "That's exactly how a leader should act." They all stood there smiling for a moment, the sun setting behind them, with the felling that the team grew a little closer in that moment.

"Wait, sunset?" Chiro suddenly asked surprised. "What time is it?"

Gibson stopped and thought for a moment, "My internal clock says twelve minutes till eight o'clock. Why?" A look of pure horror came over Chiro's face.

"Aw scrap! I was suppose to meet Jennet at Gatslapper's at seven!" And without another word Chiro dashed towards the elevator, hitting his chest and transforming back into his normal cloths as the team stood quietly on the shoulder.

"Ya know, sometimes I forget that he's still just a kid." Nova said as they watched the doors close behind him.

"I keep remembering that he probably won't be one for much longer." Antauri said solemnly.

.::~:~::.

As Chiro ran as fast as he could towards the meeting place, the minutes ticked by quickly. When he finally arrived outside of the fast food restaurant, he spotted Jennet sitting at a table by herself, her head down with her blue hair covering her face. Chiro quickly rushed towards her and started to apologize.

"Jennet I am so sorry, I didn't mean to be so-" He was cut off mid-sentence by a quick slap across the face. When she lifted her head, her face showed pure rage.

"One hour." she said with an eerie calm demeanor.

"What?" Chiro asked dumbly as he ears rang and he rubbed his face.

"One hour." She repeated as she stormed towards the poor boy. "That is how long I have been waiting outside this stupid place for you!" Her voice rose as she loomed over the confused and cowering Chiro. She stopped for a moment, seemed to evaluate the situation, and then suddenly clapped her hands over her face broke down crying. "If you didn't want to go on a date with me you shouldn't have asked for one!" She suddenly yelled at him, causing more than a few odd looks from the other patrons.

"That's not it at all!" Chiro insisted quickly, "I just got busy and lost track of time."

"Lost track of time doing what?" Jennet asked sourly. Chiro bit his lip.

"You know I can't tell you what." He said sadly. This made Jennet furious.

"Well if you can't ever talk to me and tell me what you are doing, how can we expect this relationship to work?" She asked angrily. She shook her head and started to walk away. "I just can't stand you sometimes Chiro."

"Wait!" He suddenly said as he dashed towards her, "If I told you where I was and what I was doing, would you promise not to tell a soul." Jennet stopped and turned towards him, her face oddly void of the tears she had acted like she was crying just moments ago.

"Yes." She said without hesitation, "I suppose I would listen if you wanted to attempt to explain where you were." Chiro sighed as he took her hand and started to pull her down the street.

"Come on, I'll tell you somewhere else, it's too crowded here." Chiro said as they walked quickly away from the crowd that had gathered. _I can't believe I'm about to do this. _Chiro thought miserably to his self.

* * *

Alright, I have some explaining to do huh? Well first off if you didn't know it already, I started college this year, not only that but I'm working towards a dual pre-med and psychology major and that takes a TON of free time away from me. Also because I just moved on campus, I'm trying to actually have a life in between class, studying, and sleeping.

So yeah, it's been a while since I wrote a new chapter of anything, but school is more important right now. Now this DOES NOT mean I'm going to stop writing completely, in fact I hate that I don't have enough time too write. I want to finish these stories, but you have to have wait for them. I want to write good stories, not just finish them to put them up here.

Luckily, this semester will end at the beginning of December and I'll have a ton more time to write. But until then, updates will be few and in between. I'm sorry this is taking so long guys, I really am. Thank you all for staying with me though, you are all truly amazing fans.

Sincerely, Ren.


	10. Chapter 10

I didn't have time to finish the new chapter of Book 1 this week but I didn't want to just not update, so instead you guys get a new chapter of Book 0. Can anyone guess how long this chapter has been on my computer? If you guessed over 2 years, you would be correct! Can't really say why I never got around to finishing this thing, just never felt like it was done I guess. I do like how it turned out though, but I need to go through and re-edit all the old chapters of this book like I did for Book 1, its quality is not up to par with the rest of the series now.

* * *

Chiro sighed as he leaned against the rail of the dock. Usually on nights like this, the water's edge would be swarming with romantic couples walking hand-in-hand and enjoying the warm, spring breeze coming off the water. But not tonight, tonight it was only Chiro and Jennet who dared to venture out. Most the city was still upset by the attack a few weeks ago and they wouldn't go anywhere outside the center of the city.

The gentle wind blew Chiro's hair into his eyes and he swatted it out-of-the-way as he looked across the water and out to the burnt lands. Jennet stood silently behind him, arms crossed, waiting for an answer. The wind playfully pulled at her pony tail, and if she hadn't been so upset with him, she would have used the opportunity to flirt with Chiro, but she was far too annoyed to really care about something as silly as that at the moment. Finally after a few minutes of silence, she walked up beside him and leaned against the rail with her back to the water.

"So do you have something to tell me, or not?" She asked annoyed as she placed her elbows on the cool rail behind her. Chiro hung his head down silently as he stared at the waves lapping against the stone wall underneath them. Jennet started to worry, if it had been some trivial matter that had kept him from their date, he would have told her by now, something was definitely up.

She dropped her sulking act and scooted closer to Chiro. "Hey, what's wrong?" She asked curiously while gently nudging him with her shoulder. "There is something you're not telling me, I can feel it." Chiro remained silent while he slowly lifted his head and looked across the water.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity to Jennet, Chiro sighed and began to speak. "You know how everyone has been freaking out about the Hyper Force coming back?" He suddenly asked her, catching her off guard. This was not where she had expected the conversation to go.

"Yeah," She answered slowly, more than a bit confused, "It even has my dad freaking out. Why?"

"Have you given it much thought as to _why_ they might be back?" Chiro questioned as he continued to refuse to look meet her gaze. She shook her head and waited a reply, making Chiro sighed heavily and finally turning to face her. "What if I told you I knew-" A loud musical tone cut Chiro off mid-sentence. They blinked at each other a few moments before Jennet reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone.

"What?" She snapped at the caller angrily, then her face went pale as her voice softened. "Oh h-hi Daddy…No I'm safe-….Well I'm just out with some of my friends…." Jennet answered quickly before getting quiet as she listened to the voice on the other line. She knitted her brows together, confused as she suddenly grunted aggravated. "Do you need me home at this moment?" she asked annoyed as a muffled reply came loud enough for even Chiro to hear: "Yes."

She wiped the side of her face with her hand and sighed, "Yeah okay I'll be home in a few minutes." She said frustrated as there was angrier mumbling and grunting on the other line. "No I do not need you to send the car to get me!" She snapped, "I can walk back home myself by the time the car reaches me… Yes I'll be home in a little while….love you too." She snapped the phone shut and glared at Chiro a moment with her hands on her hips.

"What was that about?" Chiro asked as Jennet continued to glare at him.

"Daddy wants me home now, he says that there is something big going on and he doesn't like me running around at night. Basically telling me to get my butt home." She answered with a huff. "Don't think this lets you off the hook, though." She warned as she waved a finger in front of Chiro's face. "You are telling me everything tomorrow, mister."

She glanced down at her wrist watch and sighed. "I have to run now, don't go slinking off to wherever you've been the past few weeks. We are having a serious talk about this tomorrow afternoon." She reminded him as she twirled on her heels and dashed back towards the heart of the city. "Don't forget this time, okay?" She called back to Chiro as she disappeared around a corner.

Chiro stood there struck in awe a moment before he broke into a grin and shakily laughed. "That was a close one." He remarked to himself as he shoved his hands into his pockets just as his own phone started to vibrate. He held it to his ear as his mother's voice screamed into it:

"Chiro Cipes! Where on Shugazoom have you been?!" Annizett Cipes asked angrily. "Get home this instant young man!" She ordered as she nervously pulled at her hair and Chiro gulped while beginning to head back home.

"Okay, okay Mom." He sighed as he rubbed his aching ear, "Calm down, what's the problem?" He asked even though he already had a growing suspicion as to what it was.

"Have you not heard?" She asked amazed as she looked towards the T.V. "The whole city buzzing with it! There was a human seen fighting with the Hyper Force today; every news station on the planet is trying to get the story."

"Really?" Chiro asked, trying to sound more shocked than he was.

"Yes," His mother insisted, "A bunch of citizens saw him with them. Now hurry up and get back here immediately! I feel like something big is about to happen and I want you home, not out running around doing who knows what. Okay?" her voice unexpectedly changed to a soft and concerned tone.

"Yes, ma'am." Chiro said obediently while nodding his head even though she could not see it. "I'll be home in a few minutes, promise."

"Okay good, be careful and remember that I love you." She said as she twisted the phone cord in her fingers.

"Love you too, Mom." Chiro ended the call and shoved his hands in his pockets, looking towards the sky. Conflicting emotions flew around inside of him; on one hand he was nervous, everyone knew that the Team had a human on their side now. But at the same time he was excited at the prospect that he could be hailed as a hero, eventually that is. He ran home with a grin on his face and his heart thumping in his ears.

.::~::.

Jennet leaned against the wall of the elevator and cursed silently. She had completely ignored the possibility of simply having Chiro explain to her what was going on while they ran home, as opposed to waiting till tomorrow to get the story from him. She crossed her arms and sighed angrily, the elevator quiet except for the soft music that floated through the speakers and the ding as it passed floors with the occasional shuffle as the Bellhop moved in the awkward silence. Jennet continued to sulk on the back wall until, finally, the digital floor marker showed the number "23" and the doors slid open to reveal the penthouse suite that was Jennet's home. She walked out while handing the elevator operator a small bill and he happily went back down to the lower levels of the building.

The apartment took up the space of the entire 23rd floor and had been lavishly furnished by her father's many secretaries over the years, so all of the rooms clashed. But no one except her Father's closest friends ever came up here-Chiro had only been in the suite on a few occasions- so there was hardly anyone to complain about the lack of style.

Jennet knew the moment she stepped foot off the elevator where her father would be so, grabbing a banana off the counter as she walked by, she let herself into his office and quickly slipped into the room, unnoticed by the men standing around and grumbling quietly to each other. Though there were about 10 men of assorted shapes, sizes, and in many obnoxious colors crowding around the large mahogany desk, it was the man behind it that drew called one's attention.

He was a broad-shouldered man in a finely tailored green pinstriped business suit. His dark blue hair was speckled with gray spots that did nothing to ruin his naturally good looks, if anything they enhanced them. His dark gray eyes were piercing and calculated and the way his large hands sat calmly on the desk told you this man meant business, and Mr. Lamech Windle almost always did.

"Hi Daddy." Jennet said loudly over the rabble as she leaned against a side table and began to peel her banana. "What's all the commotion about?" she asked calmly as the men finally took notice of the young girl, but none moved to scold her for interrupting the conversation. If it had been anyone else, they would have ordered them out immediately, but Jennet was no normal 14-year-old girl. She had inherited the ability to make people do what she wanted from her father, and no one ever went against her. If she wanted to listen in on the discussion, she could and not one person in that meeting would lift a finger to stop her.

"How have you not heard yet?" A slender but greasy man asked in astonishment. "It's all over the news! There is a human helping the Hyper Force!"

Jennet froze mid-bite and uttered a perplexed, "Really?" The question was directed at her father, but a portly man to his left answered for her.

"Yes of course really! Why he's probably a Shugazoomian himself, which means we're all in real trouble boss…" The man trailed off and rubbed his hands nervously as he turned to Mr. Windle who was sitting there with his eyes closed a moment, composing himself before answering.

"We don't know if it's a Shugazoomian for sure, yet." He finally said calmly as Jennet slowly chewed on her banana and listened intently to her father's 'business'. "It could be an alien and he could have no knowledge of our different 'business transactions'." The way he inflicted the words made you know he was not talking about the realty company he ran as a front.

The greasy man ran his hands feverously through his hair, "Yes sir we know, but there is still a chance that they do know about our 'transactions' and if they are cleaning up the city, I seriously doubt they will let us continue them for very long."

"I know that!" Mr. Windle suddenly snapped while slamming his hands down loudly on the table, causing everyone including Jennet to jump in fright. He took another moment to compose himself before continuing. "But there is a chance that he has not told them yet, or maybe they won't even stay on Shugazoom and we have nothing to worry about." He continued calmly as he brought his fingers together and placed them under his nose. "And we must use this to our advantage."

He turned his chair to face a bookcase as a large T.V. screen was revealed behind a set of shelves and began to play a clip of the fight from earlier, showing a grainy video of the battle. It seemed to have been taken with a cell phone so it was hard to tell details, but the men watched attentively. "I want that person found and brought here so we can make a…deal." he finished velvety. "We need to make sure that we can continue on with business as usual while they focus on the real enemies out there."

He pressed a button and the video froze at a blurry frame of the boy jumping. You could hardly make out his white outfit from the wall behind him and his hair was a dark mess, but his piercing blue eyes caught your attention immediately. Jennet persisted in slowly chewing on her banana and studying the picture intently as the men continued to argue over what to do next.

.::~::.

As Chiro entered his apartment, he saw his mother sitting on the couch nervously watching T.V. and biting her nails, a habit he had noticed she only seemed to pick up when she was particularly worried about something. As the door clicked behind him, she looked up at him and sighed in relief before snapping. "Finally! I was worried sick, young man!"

"Sorry Mom, I was just hanging out with Jennet and lost track of the time." Chiro sort of lied as he walked towards the couch and sat down. The screen showed several old, stuffy looking men arguing at a circular table about the Hyper Force. "Promise it won't happen again." he finished absent-mindedly as he watched the screen change to the footage of the actually fight. He huffed as he saw that the video quality was too poor to even bother watching and slumped on the couch as his mother turned to him confused.

"Why were you hanging out with Jennet this late? Were B.T. and Glenny there too?" Annizett Cipes asked her son who continued to watch the show even though he was uninterested.

"Nope, it was just us walking around the city." He answered casually while his mother bit her lip. She turned to the Television a moment before picking up the remote and turning the volume on low. Chiro sat up and looked at his mother as she sighed and met his blue eyes with her own.

"Honey, we need to talk." She said as she pulled nervously at her skirt hem. She hadn't had time to get into something more comfortable after work, so she slowly took the bobby pins out of her hair as she talked. "I don't know if Jennet is… the best girl to hang out with."

Chiro's jaw dropped and he managed to blink a few times before getting out a stuttered "What?" He settled back into the couch, not really wanting to see where this went. "What are you talking about?"

Annizett sighed as she looked at her son. "I'm just saying that she isn't really the … safest girl to be close to. I mean her family is not exactly that honest or trustworthy."

"There is nothing wrong with her though!" Chiro snapped, suddenly on the defense. "You can't judge her based on what her dad does!"

"Yes I know dear, but I'm not." She persisted while placing a gentle hand on Chiro's knee. "You know just as well as I that before you were friends with her she was a bully, just as Glenny and B.T. were, and you know how much I like them. They are good boys deep down, just easily manipulated." Chiro glared at her hand and pulled his legs out of her reach.

"So what you are saying is that I'm being manipulated by her?" Chiro asked angrily while crossing his arms.

"No I am not, but I think you could be without even realizing it." She countered calmly while nervously pushing her hair out of her eyes. "Honey I know that it looks like I'm attacking her without reason but-"

"But nothing, mom!" Chiro yelled, "You are judging her based on her family and on her past. You always taught me that people sometimes make mistakes, Who's to say she hasn't but has changed since we were kids?"

"I just have a bad feeling about her!" Annizett confessed suddenly while reaching out for her son's hand, but was denied the comfort. "I don't know why honey, but I just do. There is something off about that girl, something darker behind everything she does and I just get chills from her. I'm just trying to tell you to be careful and that maybe you shouldn't get too close to her, dear." She bit her lip as a realization slowly dawned on Chiro.

"So this is all because you don't want us to date?" He asked in shock as his mother adverted his gaze, confirming his suspicions. "I can't believe this!" He shouted while throwing his hands up in exasperation.

"That is not the only reason behind it though!" she countered as Chiro stood up and started stalking to his room. "I just don't want you to get hurt! I worry about you, honey!"

"And you think telling me you hate one of my best friends is the best way to do that?" He turned back. "I can't believe you! Dad would have never done something like this!" He yelled as he slammed his door shut. Annizett gasped and briefly considered rushing over and demanding he open the door that instant, but instead she sunk to the couch and rested her head gently in her hands, tried and defeated.

The next morning Chiro was up, dressed, and gone before his mother ever woke up. He quickly hurried towards the Super Robot with his hands stuck deep in the pockets of his khaki shorts, hardly even trying to hide that he was heading towards the outskirts. He was wearing a simple white and orange baseball tee with black sneakers and in a matter of minutes, he was gliding up the elevator tube of the Super Robot and into the control room.

As always, Otto's green legs were sticking out of the control panel as Chiro walked in and, upon hearing the pneumatic tube bring the new leader up, the mechanic slid out from underneath it and hopped happily over to Chiro.

"Hey there Big C!" Otto yelled happily as he approached Chiro with a wide grin on his face and oil darkening his fur, but seeing how distraught the young boy was, he slowed down to a walk and tilted his head to the side while asking, "Something the matter, Chiro?"

The leader shoved his hands into his pockets and looked away. "Don't worry about it Otto, it's nothing." Chiro glanced at the green primate and was surprised to see Otto's usual carefree expression gone and him looking hard at the boy. Otto took Chiro's hand in his own and pulled the leader out of the Control Center and into the Kitchen. Forcing him to sit down at the table, Otto then rummaged through the cupboards before finding what he was looking for, a bar of chocolate. Chiro remembered picking out the candy specifically with Otto in mind when he had gotten groceries for the Hyper Force the previous week. The mechanic walked over to the table and handed the chocolate to Chiro.

"Here you go." He simply stated while looking to Chiro. "I don't know what's wrong or why, but I hope it gets better." Otto smiled widely before patting Chiro on the shoulder and walking out of the room once more. Chiro looked from the candy bar to where Otto had just left and then back to the chocolate, confused. Suddenly, his vision began to blur as tears grew in the corners of his eyes and with a smile, he blinked them away while biting into the candy and shaking his head.

.::~::.

Chiro spent most of the day wandering from place to place in the robot, doing this and that to distract himself from the problems at home. He trained a bit with Nova, practiced piloting with Sparx, and mediated briefly with Antauri. That was when his mentor explained the urgency of the Skeleton King returning and his preparations to wreak havoc on Shugazoom City. They briefly discussed several different battle plans and scenarios while enjoying a light lunch with the rest of the team before he continued a few history lessons with Gibson and learned a bit more on how the robot worked with Otto.

"Ya know," the green monkey stated as they stood outside the robot and examined the different components of the feet. "There used to be a big platform in the middle of the city where the Super Robot could dock." He explained while patting the metal siding. "I wonder what ever happened to it."

"Where was it in city?" Chiro asked as Otto pondered momentarily.

"Well, near the Radio Tower the last time we were awake." Otto explained, "But considering how much of the city has changed since then, I bet that the tower isn't even standing anymore." Otto shook his head as Chiro snickered quietly.

"Actually, it does! They still use the old thing if you believe that, and it's still the best radio tower on Shugazoom." Chiro explained Otto's eyes lit up brightly.

"Oh I wish I could see it! I want to know if the dock still works and everything!" Otto chatted happily. "I bet we could even reactivate it for when we make our big appearance to the city!" Chiro nodded while looking over the robot.

"Well I'm sure you'll get your chance soon, from how Antauri is acting, It seems like the Skeleton King could show up any day now. Who knows when we'll be called to action?"

Otto's smile dropped quickly as he slowly nodded, "Yeah I guess that would be a pretty good reason to make our big comeback, though not a very happy one." Chiro laughed at Otto's sudden change in demeanor.

"Aw come on Otto, why the sad face? What better way to make an entrance than beating up the bad guy for everyone to see." Chiro preformed a series of quick kicks and punches on an imaginary enemy to demonstrate. "Just think of how cool we would all look kicking tail and saving girls." As if in the moment then, Chiro dramatically flipped his hair back like he imagined a girl would and gave himself a fake falsetto voice. " "Oh thank you kind sir for saving me.' " He batted his eyelashes before jumping to Otto's opposing side and puffing out his chest. "No problem Ma'am, just doing my job protecting the fine ladies of Shugazoom, such as yourself." He gave Otto a wink and laughed, but stopped when he realized that the primate was not joining him in the fun.

"If we have to fight off Skeleton King's forces that means people might be hurt in the cross-fire, Chiro." Otto explained seriously. He looked up at his young human friend with an expression that he had yet to display in front of Chiro. "Saving people means that they have to actually be in danger first and we can't always make sure we're there to help them in time." He looked down at the ground and sighed. "And trust me when I say that our greatest enemy has no problem with taking casualties; I remember a good number of families that have been destroyed by his long and dark reach." Chiro stood in silence, stunned and shocked by this sudden display of regret from Otto. After a few moments he coughed awkwardly and rubbed the back of his head.

"You're right Otto. I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to bring up bad memories, I was just trying to get you pumped to save people again."

Otto suddenly looked up and him with a brilliant smile, "Oh I know you didn't mean anything by it, and trust me I am excited to kick some Formless butt." He made his own series of jumps and kicks now, but stopped and stood erect again while facing Chiro. "I just want you to understand that it really isn't all fun and butt-kicking. People do get hurt; it's just what happens in war."

Chiro slowly nodded, "I understand, I'll try to take this 'hero' thing a bit more seriously from now on, okay?" Otto nodded and smiled before turning and walking back inside the robot.

"Okay great, now let's see what's for dinner!" He cheered happily with Chiro following close behind.

They both reentered the control center just as the alarm started blaring and ran to the main computer. Otto began furiously typing on it as the rest of the team rushed in from different parts of the robot.

"Otto, report." Antauri ordered shortly as he, Sparx, Nova, and Gibson quickly crowded around the computer terminal.

"It seems that a group of Formless just started attacking the city," Otto explained as he brought video surveillance footage of the city up on-screen. The static cleared to show a grainy shot of people running in terror through the streets as an army of Formless chased after them. "And it looks like a lot of 'em."

"Holy Cow." Sparx sighed while rubbing the back of his head absent-mindedly. "I don't think we've dealt with this many Formless in years."

"Then I think this is the perfect time to see how well we can fight in the Super Robot." Chiro pointed out while Antauri nodded in agreement.

"I agree with Chiro. Monkeys, mobilize!" The black monkey yelled as the team rushed to their pneumatic tubes and into action.

* * *

And thus we finally start to see Jennet's dad, a man that I have only referenced in the past. Funfact time! Chiro's mom was originally called "Marianna" in the old draft of this, but apparently I have named her something else in the Alphabet one-shots I'm writing? I know that I was going back and forth on what to name her years ago, but apparently I settled on Annizett and had forgotten by the time I got back around to writing this. I had to re-read so much stuff to make sure I got her name right here.

Okay well while I'm not sure when the next time I'll return to writing Book 0 is, I know it will be soon so stay tuned here and on Book 1 for an update every week!


End file.
